DEFENDERS OF AMERICA from National Biscuit Company: USS TRITON

I have eight trading cards called Defenders of America that were issued by the National Biscuit Company (changed to Nabisco in 1971) in the late 1950s. I have no idea where I got them. Most likely my best friend gave them to me.

The cards were given away inside boxes of Nabisco cereal. I found these two images of the package advertising online at The Imaginary World site.

There were twenty-four cards in the series. Over the next few posts I'll show you the eight I have.

This is card number 3 in the series.




Click on either image to see it larger.

USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586), a United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine, was the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth (Operation Sandblast), doing so in early 1960. Triton accomplished this objective during her shakedown cruise while under the command of Captain Edward L. "Ned" Beach, Jr. The only member of her class, she also had the distinction of being the only Western submarine powered by two nuclear reactors. 

Triton was the second submarine and the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Greek god Triton. At the time of her commissioning in 1959, Triton was the largest, most powerful, and most expensive submarine ever built, at $109 million excluding the cost of nuclear fuel and reactors.

After operating for only two years in her designed role, Triton's role as a radar picket submarine was made obsolete by the introduction of the carrier-based Grumman WF-2 Tracer airborne early warning aircraft. Converted to an attack submarine in 1962, she became the flagship for the Commander Submarine Forces U.S. Atlantic Fleet (COMSUBLANT) in 1964. She was decommissioned in 1969, the first U.S. nuclear submarine to be taken out of service.

Triton's hull was moored at the St. Julien's Creek Annex of Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia as part of the reserve fleet until 1993, though she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1986. In 1993, she was towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to await the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. The former Triton landed on the keel resting blocks in the drydock basin on 1 October 2007 to begin this recycling process which was completed effective 30 November 2009. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To read more about the design, construction and operational history click here.

Next time...U. S. Navy Guided Missile Submarine Polaris.