a polaris milestone was reached in december 1965 when uss "thomas a. edison" came alongside to commence the 100th refit of a nuclear ballistic submarine (ssbn) by the "hunley". this signified that one hundred ssbn submarines had gone out on time from "hunley" and not one of them had to make an early return from patrol. this represented some 200 months of polaris on station or 16½ years of submerged strategic deterrent since "hunley's" arrival in holy loch 9 january 1963. "hunley's" motto was "we serve to preserve peace". "hunley" returned to the united states late in 1966 and in 1967 operated out of charleston, south carolina. "hunley" put out for guam on the day after christmas, 1967, to relieve "proteus" at polaris point from january to june 1968 while "proteus" underwent a self-overhaul, with "hunley" returning to charleston in july 1968. in 1971 "hunley" relieved "proteus" in guam again in order for "proteus" to go to shipyard. it was while "hunley" was in guam that the machinery repair division received the meritorious unit commendation, having expended 4500 hours of repair labor on various units of the u.s. pacific fleet. in 1973 "hunley" returned to bremerton shipyard for conversion overhaul. after completion "hunley" returned to charleston, south carolina, to again service the atlantic fleet. in 1978, "hunley" went to boston naval shipyard for hull cleaning and hull valve repairs in preparation for relieving "proteus" once again in guam. in transit to guam, "hunley" went around south america rather than through the panama canal. in 1980, "hunley" was relieved by "proteus" and returned to charleston via the panama canal.