USS George C. Marshall (SSBN-654), a Benjamin Franklin-class ballistic missile submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for General of the Army George C. Marshall (1880-1959), who served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949 and as U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1950 to 1951.

The very existence of this ship, her power, her mission, her orders, her competence to execute them, will affect more computations, more decisions, than we can readily imagine.

Far beyond the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House, she will add a new factor, a new magnitude, to the correlation of forces by which the communists determine their decisions.

During an overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding that lasted from 1981 to 1984, George C. Marshall underwent modifications that included the removal of her Mk 45 ASTOR (and the related 4FZ alarm system) and her Mark 14 torpedo and Mark 37 torpedo capabilities and the installation of a Mobile Submarine Simulator (MOSS) decoy capability on tubes 3 and 4.

George C. Marshall conducted 78 strategic deterrent patrols during her career and was one of the last units to leave Holy Loch, Scotland, following the closing of that base in 1992.