Mrs. Rose Perry relates her son’s experience on the U.S.S. Helena, a Brooklyn-class light cruiser used by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater of World War II. The Helena was one of the cruisers attacked in Pearl Harbor, and was directly torpedoed by the Japanese. The Helena survived the attack and was assigned to assist in the Guadalcanal campaign. It helped to destroy several Japanese aircraft and battleships and contributed to American victories in the South Pacific. The Helena was sunk on July 6, 1943 in the Battle of Kula Gulf after sinking two destroyers, in a battle considered to otherwise be a decisive victory for the United States. Ernest, along with 166 others, drifted at sea for a few days before washing up on the Japanese-occupied Vella Lavella Island, within the Solomon Islands. They stayed with Chinese coconut workers, who took care of them. They were rescued the following month, which was reported by radio. Rose describes the period of over thirty days between the sinking of the Helena and the news of their rescue, while she was waiting in suspense. Ernest caught malaria on Vella Lavella and was discharged. After the war, Ernest suffered from depression and PTSD and struggled with ill health. He was employed as a janitor at the Lucius Pitkin Company, under the Atomic Energy Commission, when he took his own life on July 17, 1962. Mrs. Perry reads a section of her son's obituary.
Interviewer Jean Page spends some time with Rose going through a scrapbook that she collected, including Ernest’s obituary, a menu for Christmas dinner aboard the Helena in 1942, and a page from Life Magazine describing the rescue from Vella Lavella, with Ernest pictured in the front. After some time, the person-to-person portion of the interview ends, and Jean Page begins reading from the scrapbook. She reads from various Daily Sentinel articles, including a snippet describing Rose’s involvement as the Commander of the Grand Junction Navy Mother’s Club, an article describing Pearl Harbor in great detail, written 38 years after the attack, and another article reporting on the Battle of Kula Gulf, where the Helena was sunk. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
