By the hand of Kluge!

Some 70 years ago this month, in July 1956, the UGM-27 Polaris SLBM was spitballed at a symposium, starting a compressed four-year development cycle overseen by RADM William “Red” Raborn for the Navy’s side of it, and Kluge, the lucky sock monkey adopted by Lockheed’s technicians– and Kluge was there for every test launch! Rear Admiral William “Red” Raborn, who led the development of the Polaris missile, smiles with good luck charm Kluge on his shoulder. (NHHC L38-72.03.03) “Kluge,” the Lockheed Technicians’ lucky monkey who has been on all the test firings of the Polaris Missile in the last two years, oversees the Missile Control Center. “Kluge” is a term meaning jury-rigged, July 1960. Polaris replaced the Regulus I (RGM-6) and Regulus II nuclear (W5 6-120 kT warhead) cruise missile systems in the U.S. Navy’s submarine-launched strategic deterrent role. It also superseded a planned naval derivative of the US Army’s Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile and would remain in…