PRIDE
RUNS
DEEP

Help build and maintain a Cold War Monument honoring America’s submariners, Cold War veterans and defense industry civil servants and workers who served our country from 1946 to 1991.

Learn • Honor • Remember

Honoring Those Who Served

Mission

What We Set Out to Do

To preserve history and its lessons, and to recognize, memorialize and express appreciation to those submarine sailors, civil servants, defense industry workers and submarine builders for their great sacrifices and service to our country during the period 1946 to 1991.

Vision

What is Being Created

Using the salvaged parts of the USS Phoenix as the centerpiece, create an inspirational, educational, functional museum monument which highlights the relationship between the U.S. Navy’s attack submarine force and the ending of the Cold War.

Purpose

Why We’re Doing it

To recognize, memorialize and express appreciation to those submarine sailors, civil servants, defense industry workers and submarine builders for their great sacrifices and service to our country during the period 1946 to 1991 and learn from their experience.

Mission

What We’re Going to Do

To preserve history and its lessons, and to recognize, memorialize and express appreciation to those submarine sailors, civil servants, defense industry workers and submarine builders for their great sacrifices and service to our country during the period 1946 to 1991.

Vision

What We’re Going to Create

Using the salvaged parts of the USS Phoenix as the centerpiece, create an inspirational, educational, functional museum monument which highlights the relationship between the U.S. Navy’s attack submarine force and the ending of the Cold War.

Purpose

Why We’re Doing it

To recognize, memorialize and express appreciation to those submarine sailors, civil servants, defense industry workers and submarine builders for their great sacrifices and service to our country during the period 1946 to 1991.

Goal

$4.0M by 2027

We’re Almost There – Please Help! 90%!

Please Help Us Reach the Goal!

$3.6M
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Project Summary

Active Duty

The USS Phoenix (SSN-702) was built by the General Dynamics Electric Boat Division and launched in December, 1979 in Groton, CT.  It was the 15th of 62 nuclear-powered Los Angeles class fast attack submarines built between 1976 and 1996, all of them specifically designed to counter the very large Soviet Union submarine fleet developed during the Cold War.  Following its sea trials, the USS Phoenix remained on active duty from 1981 to 1997, patrolling the North Atlantic areas and conducting operations on the U.S. East Coast and in the Mediterranean.

Waterborne Storage

The USS Phoenix was decommissioned in 1998 and placed in waterborne storage at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where it sat for 18 years, two years longer than its active duty period.   During that time, some dedicated, volunteer Phoenix citizens commenced planning to salvage some of its parts and place them in a downtown Phoenix park as the centerpiece of a Cold War monument.

The Monument Plan

From 1998 to 2008 these volunteer citizens lobbied the City of Phoenix for a suitable spot to place the submarine’s parts, and in 2008 the City granted a site in Steele Indian School Park for the monument.  Over the next ten years, a design was created and approved by the City, the Navy cut the boat up, and 65 tons of parts were trucked from WA to AZ where they sit in temp storage awaiting final placement in the park.  In 2019 an official fund-raising effort was commenced for planning, building and operating the monument.  This effort led to a City of Phoenix decision to provide major funding for the project and take over its management, a process that is ongoing.  A final monument design has been approved by the City.  It is currently estimated that construction for the monument will begin in the summer of 2026.

Please Support Our Monument!

Please help us raise the monies necessary to support the critical outyear maintenance and operations costs of the monument. We’re counting on donors like you to help make this monument happen!
Thank-you!

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