The contract to build her was awarded to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine on 13 March 1959 and her keel was laid down on 16 September 1960. She was launched on 24 April 1963 and was sponsored by Mrs. Grace Groves, the wife of Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, (head of the Manhattan Project) and commissioned on 31 March 1967, with Commander Louis T. Urbanczyk, Jr., in command. Jack was a variation on the standard Permit class design. She was longer than her sisters and used an experimental direct-drive plant with two contra-rotating propellers on concentric shafts. 1968 1971 1972