The Naval Undersea Museum unveiled its latest model March 7: a 38-inch replica of the USS Grayback, a Scorpion-class submarine used during the Vietnam War.

The Grayback is now paired with a MK 7 Swimmer Delivery Vehicle (SDV), which hangs above from the ceiling. During operations, the SDV was launched from the Grayback carrying Navy SEALs and sailors from UDT 11.

Previously, a replica minesweeper was kept below the SDV, but Jack James, a former Navy SEAL and director of the Historic Ships Association, pushed the museum for a model Grayback.

“They really came to us with this idea,” said Mary Ryan, museum curator. “It was something that (James) felt very strongly about that they would get the model commissioned and donated to us.”

James and the Pacific Northwest UDT-SEAL Chapter funded the model.

“I was talking to Mary probably seven times to become an annoyance, we decided ‘well it’d be nice if we got this model made,’” James said. “So the chapter pulled together and paid to get the model made.”

It was made by George Bieda, a local artist and retired Navy captain, who specializes in military paintings.

“George Bieda was kind enough to do it for us,” James said. “He’s normally an artist artist – this was kind of a step out of his comfort zone – but he made this model for us.”

James approached Bieda with the idea in Feb. 2014 but they didn’t begin in earnest until June. James wanted it done by August for a reunion.

Bieda got the design plans from a 95-year-old retired Philadelphia Naval Shipyard engineer named Ed Wiswesser. He has plans for 500 ships, including every U.S. submarine ever built, Bieda said.

Originally, they were going to have it made by a company in the Philippines, but the company wanted $500 to built it, plus another $400 for shipping.

Instead, Bieda made it for about $300. It took him about two and a half months, using mostly basswood, pine and paint.

“I’d made other models before but never one this big,” Bieda said.

It’s something he’s been doing for decades.

“I always built models as a kid,” Bieda said. “I started making wooden models in the 1980s.”

Present at the unveiling was Bill Acord, who spent a combined 10 years aboard the Grayback as a combat diver. He recalled many nights sleeping with his feet roped to his rack and an arm through a life jacket to keep from falling to the floor.

“For me to stand there for 10 years meant there must’ve been something good going on and I enjoyed it it’s a big part of my life and I appreciate all that you guys have done,” Acord said.

He also took part in the Grayback’s final mission: Operation Thunderhead, a highly classified mission off the coast of North Vietnam in 1972 to rescue prisoners of war held at the infamous Hanoi Hilton Prison.

The mission was aborted shortly after it began when a strong current took the SEALs’ SDV off-course. They were rescued the next morning and then flown back out to sea by helicopter to retrieve the SDV.

The SEALs jumped from the helicopter into the water. But high wind speeds added to the velocity of the drop and Lt. Melvin Dry was killed by impact, according to Wikipedia. He was the last SEAL to die in the Vietnam War.

The mission was declassified in 2008 and Dry was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star for valor.