Back on Jan. 14 and 15, I wrote about meeting "Doc," a sailor on the heavy cruiser USS Helena. he was quite a character.
Here are some facts about the USS Helena.
The previous USS Helena had been a light cruiser at Pearl Harbor during the attack and had been sunk in action in 1943. It was commissioned September 4, 1945, just a few weeks after World War II ended. It's main mission during the Korean War was to pound shore targets, something it was admirably equipped to do with its huge guns.
Its main armament was nine 8-inch guns and twelve 5-inch. Her crew was 1,142.
During the month of June 1951, it almost continually bombarded shore targets in North and South Korea before returning to the June 1961 Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon, something "Doc" mentioned. Sister ship USS Saint Paul was supposed to lead the river parade in Portland, but in April, a powder fire in Turret #1 killed 30 sailors and the ship was too damaged to be shown in public. This took place off Kojo, North Korea.
The USS Helena was decommissioned in 1963 and scrapped in 1974. The ship's bell is in Helena, Montana.
The Story of a Ship. --Cooter
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