Storekeeper
SK3 Hyman S. Goldfarb
USS Helena CA-75
1945 - 1946
I was one of the original crew in 1945 when this ship was just commissioned. I had just gotten out of boot camp and was in Rhode Island to be trained for the new FDR Aircraft Carrier. First day in R.I., at lunch time-I got a message that I and another sailor were to become a member of the new crew of the USS Helena CA-75 to be commissioned the next day, sometime in August 1945.
The complement of men was 1500 and the crew was short of two men. We were to be the replacements. I had absolutely no training with the big guns on the ship..nothing. I did wind up as a storekeeper third class with Ensign Seymour Parker in the payroll department.
I recall very vividly, the first time the ship left Boston Harbor to proceed to New York City, Hudson River in observance of Navy Day. That first trip was disastrous because we left Boston in October and we ran into a snow squall or snow fall. The ship was very unprepared for this adventure. I remember the young crew being seasick like crazy, and Regular Navy personnel had Italian smelly sausages to offer us when we were going to the "head" to vomit ...like we were going to die. That was an experience I have never forgotten.
I recall the officer's dishes all over the hallways, and the damages we encountered, including the aircraft stored aft. But, we survived and I had liberty and visited New York City for the day.
On October 31, 2008, I posted my first Guest Book message about the Helena I knew and will never forget. In my second Guest Book entry, I stated that I have not seen any contacts from the time the CA-75 was commissioned in Boston, Massachusetts. . .in August ??? 1945.
It is so exciting for me to recall my time on the ship during the period following the end of World War 2. In fact, I had just completed boot camp in Sampson, New York and was going home on the day the actual end of the Pacific War was declared.
All of us on the train were mobbed because the war was complete.
I was so lucky and blessed because I was on this ship which eventually, sailed around the world stopping at all the major countries in the world, going from Gibralter to England, to Scotland and finally to Tsaingto, China
Right now I feel kinda old in a sense as I see all the Guest Book postings from the time after I left the ship in Long Beach. I haven't read everything but all the entries by others appear to be from Officers and sailors from the 50's and 60's.
I certainly would be interested in hearing from my mates who served from 1945, the day the ship (CA-75) was commissioned. I believe the ship was commissioned in August 1945 and as a reserve sailor, we were released in 1946.