When GROWLER was commissioned on August 30, 1958 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kettery, Maine, she joined her sistership GRAYBACK and became the fourth submarine in the Navy designed and built to launch strategic deterrent cruise missiles armed with a nuclear warhead. Unlike today's nuclear-powered submarines that can launch cruise missiles and ballistic missiles while submerged, GROWLER and GRAYBACK along with the earlier TUNNY and BARBERO had to surface in order to launch their missiles. Although primitive when compared to missile submarines patrolling all the oceans of the world today, GROWLER patrolled the vastness of the Pacific Ocean during the early days of nuclear deterrent to preserve the peace and ensure the United States could instantly retaliate if we were attacked. This deterrent strategy has been the cornerstone of America's security for more than thirty years and will remain so, far into the future.