USS Marlin (SST-2)

Moored in Omaha’s riverfront Freedom Park, USS Marlin (SST-2) represents a rare surviving example of the compact T-1–class training submarines that supported Cold War undersea warfare development. Built at Electric Boat in Groton and commissioned in 1953 as USS T-2, Marlin spent her career not as a front-line attack boat, but as a specialized tool for shaping antisubmarine doctrine. Operating primarily from Key West, she served as a target and training platform for surface ships, aircraft, and the Fleet Sonar School, helping refine tactics and equipment in the long contest for undersea advantage. Her small size—among the tiniest operational submarines ever fielded by the U.S. Navy after its earliest experimental boats—makes her internal arrangements, systems layout, and habitability particularly revealing to anyone interested in submarine engineering and crew conditions. Decommissioned in 1973 and brought to Omaha the following year, Marlin now functions as a preserved artifact of the training infrastructure that underpinned U.S. submarine proficiency, set incongruously far from blue water yet closely tied to its operational history.