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The “41 for Freedom” refers to United States Navy Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) Submarines that comprise the following classes: the George Washington, the Ethan Allen, the Lafayette, the James Madison, and the Benjamin Franklin. These five classes of Ballistic missile submarines totaled forty-one ships all together, hince the nickname “41 for freedom”.
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These nuclear-powered submarines were armed with long-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles to create a deterrent force against the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. This is also referred to as the Cold War that spanned from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s.
The United States Navy had to create a new hull classification symbol for this new type of submarine, the SSBN. The first of the 41 for Freedom submarines was the USS George Washington (SSBN-598) commisssioned on 30 December 1959. The last built of the 41 for Freedom submarines was the USS Will Rogers (SSBN-659) which was formally decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 12 April 1993. But she was not the last FBM submarine decommissioned.
In July 1992, USS Kamehameha (SSBN-642) was converted to a SEAL special warfare platform and was outfitted with a drydeck shelter/swimmer delivery platform. USS Kamehameha was decommissioned on 2 April 2002, the last ship of the original "41 for Freedom" and the oldest submarine in the United States Navy. Almost 37 years old, she held the record for the longest service lifetime of any nuclear powered submarine.
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From the Federation of American Scientists:
United States Navy
