Former President Jimmy Carter signs the guest book on June 5, 2004 during christening ceremonies in Groton for the third Seawolf-class ship, USS Jimmy Carter (SSN23), named for the only submariner elected President of the United States.
In February 2023 it was announced that former President Jimmy Carter had entered in-home hospice. Shortly after the announcement, anticipating President Carter’s passing, a podcast was recorded with Electric Boat’s former President Kevin Graney, featuring several Electric Boat employees who had personal interactions with President Jimmy Carter. At that time, many who knew President Carter stated in the media that given his character and determination, he would likely set a survival record. President Carter passed away on December 29, 2024, 22 months after entering hospice. I share the podcast below and echo Kevin’s comments that we are all saddened by the loss of the man who lived a long, full, purpose-driven life as husband, father, humanitarian, statesman, former submariner and special friend to Electric Boat.
A national day of mourning will be observed for President Carter on Thursday, January 9. Employees are invited to view Electric Boat’s livestreamed ceremony on January 9 at 11 a.m. EST. We will share a streaming link with employees later this week.
Please visit the podcast and see the transcript below.
Mark
Former President Jimmy Carter waves from the Seawolf-class submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) as he gets under way for a one-night embark from the Naval Submarine Base in Kings Bay, Ga., in August 2005 (U.S. Navy photo).
Hi everyone; it’s Kevin. We are all saddened by the news of former President Jimmy Carter’s passing. While the world will always remember him as a statesman and a humanitarian, we at Electric Boat have a very special bond to the man who was the only qualified submariner to be elected president of the United States, so it’s appropriate we remember him. Electric Boat designed and built the boat named for Mr. Carter, the third and final Seawolf-class ship, which really is a ship that is in a class of its own, just like the man.
Joining me today on the podcast are several people who have a connection to the Carter, either in designing, building or serving on it. A few were lucky enough to have met the former president. They’ll all share their thoughts about the man and his namesake submarine. So let’s get started; first up is Matt Olander, our current VP of Design and Engineering who worked on the Jimmy Carter earlier in his EB career as an engineer.
Thanks Kevin. I’ll start with a little history on the Seawolf class itself. As you said, it was a three-ship class. It was really intended to be the ultimate Cold War machine. So it almost harkened back to the president’s time in office in the heat of the Cold War. Ultimately though, at the end of the Cold War the program was truncated, and we ended up with three ships with a very unusual naming scheme. The first in the class named after an animal, the second our state, Connecticut, and the third after our 39th president, Jimmy Carter. As you said, the ship is almost a ship of its own class. We modified it very extensively adding a 100-foot hull section and ultimately called her the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP). This turned this very capable Cold War platform into an R&D boat accommodating advanced technology, new sensors, payloads, ultimately enabling her to do classified R&D development and testing. Interestingly, President Carter attended the commissioning of the ship in 2005, and his family spent some time touring the ship and the crew as well. I was lucky enough to meet him, albeit very briefly, during the commissioning ceremony.
Thanks for that Matt. Now with us on the phone is Stan Gwudz, everybody knows Stan, who just retired from EB last year. If you know Stan, you know you have enormous respect for what he’s delivered to Electric Boat over nearly 50 years. Stan was the Ship’s Manager on the Carter project. Stan, let’s talk about your experience working on the boat and meeting the former president.
Thank you Kevin. Matt did a great job summarizing the 23-boat, the Jimmy Carter. A magnificent ship, probably the most complex submarine we’ve ever built, at least during my stay at Electric Boat. It was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build that submarine and work with some of the greatest engineers and designers in the company, with Matt being one of those. My first experience meeting President Carter…actually, it wasn’t really good timing. We got word that the president and Mrs. Carter wanted to visit EB and tour the submarine. Again, it’s never the right time in submarine building. The multi-mission platform section had just arrived from Quonset Point, and we were in the process of pairing up the submarine and doing the hull butt. We were bringing the forward end section together, we were probably about three feet from pairing, when they showed up. Prior to their arrival, obviously the Secret Service came down, and we had to figure out what the tour route was going to be, and we were trying to explain to the Secret Service what we were doing and that we might have to call an audible. They were pushing back a little bit because they wanted the tour path to be what it is. We thought it was going to be a small crowd, and all of a sudden a big greyhound bus pulls into 260 over into Bay 5. President and Mrs. Carter had about 30 of their family members come off of this greyhound, and I thought “you’ve got to be kidding me,” and Mrs. Carter, to boot, had high heels on, and I said “someone is going to get hurt.” Anyway it was really unbelievable how nimble Mr. Carter was and how he weaved his way through that submarine.
You need to understand, the MMP section, we had this wasp-waist section, which was like a tunnel going through with power cables running through that we were going to route through the forward end of the boat. You had to go in and out and maneuver around those. Again, Mrs. Carter too managed to maneuver around those. It was amazing how interested he was. He wanted to meet the people; he shook hands and had some small conversations with some of our people. I was really impressed on his knowledge. Obviously he was briefed on the project; I’ve done a lot of these things with vice presidents, secretaries of defense, etc., and they really don’t understand what we’re doing. What really impressed me was that he really understood the submarine. Obviously he was a submariner, but he never experienced anything like this; it was like he was building the thing himself. We guided him along, but he took the tour on his own, that’s what stood out the most with me, how impressed he was, and what a people person he was, and how he really understood the product, and how appreciative he was of the men and women of Electric Boat.
Another story, a little bit on the light side: we had the ceremonial launch. Obviously, with the Carters, and this time they came with about 60 folks from Georgia. We took photos that day and had the dinner the night before. We had the ceremonial launch. Pete Halvordson was the VP of Operations at the time. He had a big banner, 25-foot long, made up of Jimmy Carter. We had all the folks that worked on the boat sign the banner. We were going to hang it over in 8N—as you go into the gate and you look at 8N, we had it hung on that side of the building. So we’re at the launch and Pete asked me to get President Carter to sign the banner. Keep in mind that every time I was with the President, the Secret Service was all over him. They would even whisper “you can’t touch him.” You know how you need to get closer to someone inside a noisy ship and have a tendency to put your arm on someone’s shoulder and talk to them. That was a no-no with those guys. So I went up to the president and asked him to sign the banner. He said yes, so I took him out of the room and guess what? Either the Secret Service were eating the shrimp or they fell asleep, but they don’t see this. So I take the president out and down the hall a couple of rooms, and he signs the banner. In the meantime, they finally wake up and realize they lost the President. There was some commotion with them running around the hallway thinking someone kidnapped him. When we came out of the room, needless to say, I got an earful from those guys. That’s one story I’ll never forget.
The other thing about the president, he just went with the flow. He never changed his demeanor, he was always the same level, he just made this immediate impression on you like nobody I’ve ever met before. Obviously the utmost respect because he respected what we did. He was just a gentleman and obviously a great president. I’ll tell you, those are memories I’ll take to the grave with me. You never forget that kind of stuff. I’m really appreciative of Electric Boat to give me that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that most people would never have, to meet one of the greatest presidents we’ve had.
Ship Sponsor Rosalynn Carter christens the future USS Jimmy Carter on June 4, 2004.
Great stories Stan, thanks for sharing that with us. Mark Wiggins is an electrical engineering specialist in Overhaul and Repair Engineering. Mark, you were a plank-owner on the Carter and met the former President on a couple of occasions. Tell us what it was like to meet the Carters.
I came to the boat in 2002 when they had just put the MMP section in, and the first day I walked up to the boat the COB says this 100-foot section is yours. I was the first Chief on the MMP. A little while later the Carters came down for their second visit to the boat before the launching. He talked to the Chief’s Quarters separately about leadership, how hard it would be on today’s boats with the complexity compared to his days on the boats. He also talked to us individually about our careers and made small talk about where he grew up; he was a very humble person. His wife Rosalynn was a very humble person too. The launching was the highlight of my career. I can remember standing there that day, it was a crystal clear day outside. I was right behind the officers, on the one side where President Carter was sitting, and I got to look at him the whole day. That was pretty special. It was a nice day to be on the boat.
Thanks Mark. Also with us today is Ray Walker, who is a senior test engineer in Maintenance Engineering. You also served on the Carter as a Machinist Mate who worked in the Special Projects, R&D section with Mark—what were your impressions of the Carters?
When I first met the president we talked about growing up in Georgia. I’m a fellow Georgian and my father grew up really close to where his hometown was, so we talked a lot about that area of the country. He talked about how excited and honored he was to have the ship named after him, and that it would carry on his legacy throughout the years. The pinnacle for me was taking him underway from King’s Bay. We pulled in, he came aboard, we took him underway, he and his wife got to drive the ship. They slept in the officer’s quarters, they briefed the crew. He got to talk to us in the crew’s mess as a group, in the three watch teams. I was in the second row right by the captain. Right to the side of him was Vice Admiral Mullens, who was CNO at the time. Very humble people, very quiet and reserved and they listened when you talked and they gave feedback. It was really great. When I first got there, I worked for Roger, he was my chief, and then Mark stole me when I got a clearance. It just so happened that the work I was doing with my clearance was very special to me because not only did I work with people like Mark, I got to work with Matt and other engineers, super-smart people who put the boat together, and I was the mechanical lead for the MMP section. I also got to go to dive school; I was one of the divers on the boat.
Thanks for that, appreciate you sharing that. Roger Parsons is a test writer currently working on the Hartford. Roger, I understand you retired off the Jimmy Carter in 2004 as the first A-Gang Chief. Tell us about your experience meeting the former president and your experience onboard the Carter.
I thought it was the most awesome thing that could ever happen to me being a hillbilly from West Virginia. First off, I never thought I would ever see a submarine let alone ride one. But I did 20 years in the Navy, and then I had the most awesome time meeting Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn together. They were very humble, like everyone else has said about them. Very good people. Just being on the Jimmy Carter itself, I learned so much about him and his Navy career, and I thought it was really something that we could actually have a submariner be the president of the United States. Because you know what, there’s not a finer group of people in the world, as far as I’m concerned.
I agree with that–the people that sail them and the people that build them.
In meeting him, we enjoyed talking about his time in the submarine force and what he did. We also talked about his humanitarian work. I really was thrilled about what he did with the people down in Guinea with the water situation and the Habitat for Humanity.
Probably what he’s best known for since he was president.
To see him out as an old person out hammering nails was just incredible. It was the pinnacle of my Navy career to meet him.
Thanks for sharing that Roger, and thanks everyone for joining me today to share your memories of former President Jimmy Carter and the ship that bears his name. I’ll close with his own words from the Navy commissioning ceremony for the Carter that took place on February 19, 2005*. In his remarks, he said he had been honored to serve as the governor of Georgia, the president of the United States and the director of the Carter Center, an influential human-rights organization. So here’s a man who is as accomplished as all of that, and he said:
“But the deepest, most emotional honor I have ever had is to have this great ship bear my name,” said Carter. Referring to the ship’s crew, most of whom he had personally met, Carter said, “Their dedication is to use its extraordinary capabilities, many top secret, to preserve peace, to protect our country and to keep high the banner of human rights around the world.”
I think those words are just as true today as they were back in 2005. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us today. If you have a moment, as you listen to this podcast, please reflect on the life of Jimmy Carter and the importance of him to our business and our business to Jimmy Carter.
Thanks for joining us today.
