Decades before he became President of the United States, a young James “Jimmy” Earl Carter, Jr. had his sights set on a lifelong career in the U.S. Navy. As a teenager, Carter dreamed of attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After graduating from high school in rural Plains, Georgia at the age of 17, he studied mathematics at two local colleges to qualify for admission to the Naval Academy. Carter was accepted in 1943 and pursued an accelerated course of study offered to midshipmen during World War II. As a result, he graduated in only three years.

After serving as a training and education officer for two years, Ensign Carter decided to change the course of his Navy career and attend Submarine School, which brought him to Naval Submarine Base New London, located in Groton, Connecticut. There, Carter underwent a rigorous, six-month training program, graduating on December 17, 1948. After several years of serving on diesel submarines in the Pacific, Carter returned to Groton in 1952 to be interviewed for the Navy’s brand-new nuclear submarine program. He was promptly promoted to Lieutenant and spent the next year preparing to become the engineering officer for the USS Seawolf nuclear submarine, being constructed at nearby Electric Boat in Groton. When Carter’s father died suddenly in mid-1953, however, the promising young officer decided to shelve his plans for a military career and headed back to rural Georgia to take over the family business of peanut farming.

Many years later — after Carter’s rapid rise to a political stardom that included being elected President of the United States in 1976 — the U.S. Navy honored Carter by naming the third and final Seawolf-class submarine after him. In June 2004, Carter returned to Groton again to watch his wife Roslynn officially christen the USS Jimmy Carter. The very next year, as the federal government sought to close military bases across the country to save money, the former president and submarine officer personally petitioned against the slated closing of Submarine Base New London, a move many supporters saw as fundamental to the ultimately successful efforts to keep the base open. Even though his life ultimately steered him away from the Silent Service, Jimmy Carter found important ways to give back to his country thanks in part to the time he spent at the sub base in Groton, Connecticut.

Further Reading

Bethanne Kelly Patrick, “Lt. Jimmy Carter,” military.com

Alan Horowitz, “Jimmy Carter’s Naval Service,” jimmycarterlibrary.org

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