Decks Tour of the USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN/SSN-601) 

This section lets you take a tour of the USS Robert E. Lee.  It is as close as we can come to showing you it once looked like when walking around Below Decks.  This section features many sketches drawn by Paul Harden, ET1(SS), Gold Crew NavET 1970-76.  This section consists of a page for each compartment. Each page has (if available) one of Paul's sketches, notes from Paul's diary made about the sketch (humorous stories about shipmates shown in the sketch), photos of that compartment, a description of that compartment and memories of that compartment shared by shipmates who stood watches in it.

Compartment Menu
 (you can also click on a compartment or it's title on the Deck Plan below)

Sketch by: Paul Harden, ET1(SS), Gold Crew NavET 1970-76

Paul Harden's Bio 
Artist's Notes: For some reason, I have always had an appreciation for history, growing up in southern Colorado with the remnants of the old gold mines, narrow gauge railroads, etc. Shortly after be assigned to the 601, during the shipyard in Bremerton in 1970, I somehow recognized that this great submarine would someday be history, and made an attempt over many patrols to document it. For years I have had this stuff, and always wished there was someway to share it ... and finally, the Internet came along. So I am more than happy to share these sketches with my fellow shipmates, and others, to show a piece of American history that has largely been ignored (at least for the money and effort that went into it!).  After browsing many other submarine web sites, I was disappointed to find that so little exists ... there are few photos, sketches, memorabilia, or anything to account for millions of man-months and dollars expended on the Polaris program. It's a shame the US Navy hasn't done more about it. Until I first logged into the SSBN- 601's web site, I did NOT know that the 601 made more patrols than any other boat, made nearly the first patrol, and made the very last. The Lee was a hell of a boat with a hell of a crew. We might have been about the oldest boat of them all, but no doubt now ... it was the best. How fitting, then, that maybe the SSBN- 601 web site might become the de facto site to honor all the boomers and may end up being *the* tribute the entire Polaris program .