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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 4
Part four – Our top guy was beginning to feel some stress, I’m sure we didn’t help matters any by constantly moving things around on him. Thankfully, he got himself moved out of the area to go bug...
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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 5
Part five – We have been looking forward to this port call ever since we left Groton. Our top guy has been telling the most tales about how great it is and how much fun we will have. There turned out...
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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 6
Part six – well, not much to say here. My good friend Larry, had a good time at the clubs. Larry Boofante endures the blonde bombshells in brave silence…. Part 7 – Weapons trials with the Admiral Post...
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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 7
Part seven – We survived the port call, just barely. Our top guy was still suffering from all of his “fun”, and missed the morning muster. Thankfully, we were just so good at our jobs that even...
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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 8
Part eight – Understandably, any fire is bad. But a fire on a Submarine is VERY bad. And, if that fire is in the area of the boat that helps us know where we are…well, you get the idea. When Sonar...
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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 9
Part Nine – On our way around to Pearl we expected to stop at all kinds of great places. We did not expect Curacao. It’s a lot like a studio movie lot. If you are on the pier where cruise ships dock...
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USS Helena – Stories from the book, pt. 10
Part Ten – We are still in Curacao, a Russian freighter was docked on the same pier as us – who thought that would work? A couple brave soles mustered the courage to visit the Russian ship and swap...
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USS Helena – Stories From The Book, pt. 11
Part 11 – We have no idea how, but we manage to have a major piece of our sonar gear fall off the ship. We joke that it was somebody from the Russian ship. It does make for an exciting few minutes as...
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Part 12 – Our little clan continues to make progress on their trek towards the pacific. As we learned in the last story, our boys are traveling without the aid of the towed array. In this adventure...
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USS Helena – Stories From The Book, pt. 13
Part 13 – We survived the “ditch” and have joined the pacific fleet. As we near the equator, much of the crew is getting nervous thinking about the shellback ceremonies. A few of us are not so...
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USS Helena – Stories From The Book, pt. 14
23 September, 1988 The Admiral Departs. A day that will burn in each ST’s memory for at least another day. As the rotund one steps aboard the tugboat to leave his beloved clan, tear comes to the eyes...
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Undated – Spring 1989 Things that go “Bump” With the rotund one safely spirited away into the bowels of the monstrous pacific training facilities USN and the usurper warmly welcome into the clan, we...
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USS Helena – Stories From The Book – pt.18
We visit another shooting gallery 01 May, 1989 Our group traveled on to strange new waters, places where the average citizen doesn’t dream of going, doing things they could never believe to be true. To...
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USS Helena – Stories From The Book – pt.19
We head west 9 May, 1989 Having completed the deeds that no-one thought the Helena could do, we are on our way to the exotic orient, where we hope to find out who the real men in SONAR are, with all...
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Drills, Weebles and more drills. 10 August, 1989 Our new leader, or as we now refer to him “The Weeble”, enjoys his rack time. We are down in numbers and have more tasks to perform than seems possible....
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USS Helena – Stories From The Book – pt.23
We’re broke – again. Undated, Fall, 1989 Editor’s note: Our new(ish) XO, who get’s more sleep than anyone aboard a submarine should, has decided it’s a good idea to wake the crew for field-days by...
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More fun in the Orient Undated, Spring, 1990 We find our merry men in transit to the island paradise of Guam. The men are somewhat apprehensive After having narrowly escaped the clutches of the...
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The end. 14 March, 1990 Only 17 hours, 20 minutes until we dock in Pearl. It seems as though this leg of Helena’s quest for freedom (also known as liberty for all hands) will never end. It is quite...
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