William Anderson (naval officer) was distinguished. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and participated in a total of eleven combat submarine patrols. Anderson was selected by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover to be the second commanding officer of the first nuclear submarine to be placed into service, the USS "Nautilus" and was its commander from 1957 to 1959. Anderson and his crew received international notice when the "Nautilus" became the first submarine to sail successfully under the polar ice cap surrounding the North Pole. That transit was completed under direct orders of President Dwight Eisenhower, under extreme secrecy and was in direct response to
Skipjack-class submarine planes were moved to the massive sail to cut down on flow-induced noise near the bow sonar arrays. They were known as sail planes or fairwater planes. The "Skipjack"s were the first class built with sail planes; they were later backfitted on the "Barbel"s. This design feature would be repeated on all U.S. nuclear submarines until the improved , the first of which was launched in 1988. The small "turtleback" behind the sail was the exhaust piping of the auxiliary diesel generator. The "Skipjack"s also introduced the S5W reactor to U.S. nuclear submarines. It was known as ASFR (Advanced Submarine