Two of the legendary warships of the modern Navy were commissioned on this day, 17 years apart. In 1937 the USS Enterprise (CV-6) – the “Big E” was commissioned at Newport News, VA. Enterprise was the only aircraft carrier to start and finish WWII – with a lot of bumps along the way.

The Big E participated in the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II.

17 years later, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was commissioned as the first nuclear powered submarine. Constructed and commissioned at Electric Boat, Groton CN. Nautilus shares the name of the fictional submarine in Jules Verne’s classic 1870 science fiction novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and the USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II.

Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. She has been preserved as a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where she receives around 250,000 visitors per year. Sadly the “Big E” was sold for scrap metal.