USS Helm DD-388

USS Helm (DD-388) was a Bagley-class destroyer, built at the Norfolk Navy Yard and launched on 27 May 1937. She was commissioned on 16 October 1937, with Lt. Cmdr. P. H. Talbot serving as her first captain.

Early Service

After her shakedown voyage, Helm operated in the Caribbean until March 1938. Following summer exercises, she was attached to Atlantic Squadron on 1 October. Early in 1939, she was ordered back to the Caribbean for annual fleet exercises, then transferred to the west coast in May 1939, where she divided her time between California and Hawaii.

War Service

At 7:55 on the morning of 7 December 1941, Helm was the only ship under way when the attack came at Pearl Harbor. Helm's crew manned their guns and brought down at least one of the attackers while their vessel was strafed; the ship suffered only slightly damage from two bombs close aboard. After the attack, she was assigned screening ship and plane guard duties in the task group of the carrier USS Saratoga.

Helm sailed on 20 January 20 1942 on a special mission to rescue Department of the Interior workers from Howland and Baker islands. Using her whaleboat on 31 January, the crew of the Helm brought off six men from the two islands.

On 15 March 1942, Helm escorted an advance base party to the New Hebrides (now Vanatu). She arrived on 19 March and remained as an escort ship as U.S. bases were consolidated. Escort duty along the Australian Coast was Helm's next important assignment, until she was ordered to Fiji for preparations for the invasion of Guadalcanal.

For the next several weeks Helm remained in the waters near Guadalcanal, then on 7 September she was ordered to provide escort protection for transports between Australia and New Guinea.

Helm remained on this duty for several months. Beginning on 29 November 1943, the Helm participated in numerous pre-invasion bombardments, covered initial troop landings, and screened transports during unloading procedures. On 19 February 1944 Helm sailed for Pearl Harbor. Escorting the battleship Maryland, she then sailed onto Mare Island Navy Yard, arriving on 4 March for long overdue maintenance and repairs.

Back to Action

Helm sailed out the Golden Gate on 5 May 1944. After her arrival in Pearl Harbor on the 10th, her crew went through refresher training off Hawaii. She arrived at Kwajalein on 7 June for the invasion of the Marianas. Over the next several months, she operated with the spearhead Fast Carrier Task Group under some of the worst conditions of the war. She emerged from her trials relatively intact, however; and after Okinawa, it was during a search and rescue mission in connection with the sinking of the USS Indianapolis that the news of Japan's surrender was received. She sailed for home 29 October 1945.

The USS Helm was decommissioned on 26 June 1946 and used that summer as a target ship during atomic tests in the Pacific. What was left was sold the following year to the Moore Dry Dock Company of Oakland, California, for scrap.

Asbestos Risks

Through WWII, each U.S. Navy destroyer widely utilized asbestos for insulating compartments and as fireproofing. Seamen or maintenance workers were most likely to be endangered by air contaminated with asbestos while near the boilers and engineering compartments, but essentially all areas of a ship such as the Helm presented a significant level of asbestos exposure. Further risk of undergoing harmful levels of asbestos contact occurred when the warship was damaged, in combat or by accident, because that often exposed asbestos-contaminated fixtures to the air or subjected them to flames or water.

The most serious chance of harmful exposure relating to asbestos occurs where items containing the mineral become damaged and easily broken, because when very small asbestos fibers can enter the air, the particles can then be breathed in by people near the hazard. Significant asbestos proximity has been extensively linked to pleural mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and many other major health conditions.

Since most asbestos-related problems are tricky to detect, naval veterans who were exposed to asbestos fibers should definitely inform their primary care physicians about this history. To learn more about the diagnostic process, available treatment options and financial assistance to help pay for medical costs, please fill out this form to receive a comprehensive packet in the mail.

Like servicemen on the other ships of this era, servicemen who served on board the Helm were all too often imperiled by asbestos fiber exposure even though the Helm experienced only moderate damage in combat and went through mostly routine redesigns and overhauls. In spite of the lack of significant battle damage and retrofit activity, servicemen on the Helm were still in contact with asbestos in the normal course of their loyal service. This danger also existed for repair personnel such as machinists and carpenters who maintained the ship when the Helm spent time at a shipyard.

Given our increased understanding of the consequences of asbestos exposure, those who lived and worked aboard this destroyer at any time in their career, and those assigned to other naval vessels, must be thoroughly informed about the dangers posed by former exposure to this deadly fiber.

Sources:

Destroyers Index