Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993 TAG: 9307150338
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
They were surrounded by Japanese destroyers and floating debris, some of it explosive, from their ship and others. Miller's life vest wouldn't inflate, because he'd left the air valve open when he'd tested it the night before. On the bright side, Miller was fairly certain the sharks had been chased away by noise from the torpedoes.
Was he scared?
"I never really did think too much about it," Miller, 76, said in an interview at his Southwest Roanoke home in June.
He was one of 732 survivors of the sinking of the USS Helena, which was carrying nearly 1,000 men in the battle of Kula Gulf, near the Solomon Islands.
Those survivors jokingly call themselves "The Kula Gulf Swim Club," and every few years, they get together to talk over old times.
This year's reunion will be held in Las Vegas. Although Miller and his wife, Helen, won't make it to this one, they have been to others in Chicago; Omaha, Neb.; St. Louis; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Seattle; San Diego; Reno, Nev.; Long Beach, Calif.; and San Antonio. In 1989, the governor of Montana invited the group to the ship's namesake city, Helena, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the state's admission to the union.
The last reunion, in Nashville in 1991, drew 464 participants.
"They seem to go in for reunions," Miller said of his former shipmates.
There actually have been four U.S. ships named Helena. The first was a 19th-century fleet gunboat, decommissioned in 1932 after service in the Spanish-American War. Miller's ship was the second Helena, a light cruiser launched in 1939. After it was sunk, it was replaced by a heavy cruiser, which saw action in the Korean War and China. It was decommissioned in 1972.
The present-day Helena is a nuclear attack submarine, launched in 1986. Crews from all the ships are invited to all the reunions.
Although Miller wasn't frightened by his war experiences, he does appreciate his good fortune in being rescued.
Miller was born in Roanoke and attended Jefferson High School and Roanoke College. He took a few months off of college to work as a messenger for Norfolk and Western, and after graduating in the summer of 1940, he joined the Navy. It was the first time he had been away from home, and after an intensive four-month training course, he was commissioned as an ensign and assigned to active duty.
The Helena was armed with 6-inch and 40mm guns, designed for surface and anti-aircraft attacks, Miller said. They were fired independently, rather than together in salvos, creating a machine gun-type effect that caused the Japanese to later accuse the U.S. Navy of using a secret weapon during the battle. By the time it was over, Miller said, the Helena had fired more rounds of ammunition than any other ship in Navy history.
But aside from using speed to outrun them, the Helena was defenseless against submarines.
That July 6, (July 5 on Roanoke's side of the International Date Line) the Helena was facing nine Japanese warships. Miller was working in the radio room two floors below deck when the first torpedo hit, shearing the bow from the rest of the ship. Incredibly, the bow was still floating the next day, and the sailors who were on it were saved.
The next two torpedoes hit the ship near the keel, killing the engine room crew instantly. After that, Miller said, "There was not much we could do. I knew she was going down."
Abandoning ship was carried out calmly, he said, and within 30 minutes what was left of the Helena disappeared beneath the surface.
The groups of men became separated in the dark, oily sea. One group drifted for three days and three nights before landing on an island north of the battle site. After nearly two hours, Miller's group heard a ship approaching. Not knowing whether it was American or Japanese, they signaled with a flashlight and were answered by the destroyer USS Radford. It and two other ships, the Nichols and the O'Bannon, had been sent out to look for survivors.
When Miller and his companions were brought aboard, they were so covered with oil that it took a year before the residue grew out from under his toenails, Miller said.
During the rescue operation, however, the ships were called back, because more Japanese ships were coming. The O'Bannon's crew volunteered to return later for the rest of the survivors, Miller said, but was denied permission. Much of the Helena's crew had to be abandoned.
Before the war was over, Miller was assigned to two more ships, the Nassau and the Houston, which also was severely damaged in the first major air battle off Formosa.
By the end of the war, Miller had earned enough points to be discharged. He spent his first six months stateside registering servicemen for G.I. Bill-sponsored college programs. He then went to work for Dillard Paper as a credit manager. After 34 years with the Noland Co., Miller retired in 1983.
During a visit to Chicago in the 1950s, Miller tried to show his young sons where he had gone to midshipman's school. But "they couldn't have cared less," he admitted.
Miller said he "never talked much" with his family about what happened to him, but he has newsletters, books and magazines that show that as the 50-year anniversary of the war's end approaches, many veterans on both sides of the battle are eager to examine and learn more about their place in history.
There have been many remembrances in Europe in the past few years, Miller said, and "that's a great thing, but there was a lot going on the Pacific, too."
by CNB