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USS Helena (SSN 725)

USS HELENA was the 38^th nuclear powered attack submarine in the LOS ANGELES-class and the fourth ship in the Navy to bear the name. On July 25, 2025, her crew held a decommissioning ceremony at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash., while HELENA was at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, awaiting her turn in the Navy's submarine recycling program.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS HELENA. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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USS HELENA History:

USS HELENA was ordered on April 19, 1982, from General Dynamics Electric Boat at Groton, Connecticut, as part of the long-running LOS ANGELES-class attack submarine program. Her keel was laid on March 28, 1985, and she was launched on June 28, 1986, with Jean Busey, wife of Admiral James Busey, as sponsor. After fitting-out and builder's trials, she was commissioned on July 11, 1987, at Naval Submarine Base New London, with Commander Thomas W. Moore in command, becoming the fourth U.S. Navy ship to carry the name HELENA and one of the early Vertical Launch System (VLS)-equipped boats of her class.

Following commissioning, HELENA completed a demanding program of shakedown operations and trials in the Atlantic. On January 5, 1988, she returned to Electric Boat for a seven-month Post-Shakedown Availability, during which early defects were corrected and systems refined after her first months at sea. This yard period concluded in August 1988, and HELENA sailed from Groton for her permanent operating base in the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on September 15, 1988, and four days later formally shifted to the Pacific Fleet, becoming the first VLS LOS ANGELES-class submarine assigned to Pearl Harbor. By October 1988, she was operating routinely from Pearl Harbor, quickly building a reputation within SUBMARINE SQUADRON SEVEN as a front-line attack submarine.

In the final year of the Cold War, HELENA moved directly into high-end Pacific operations. In May 1989, she completed a Northern Pacific operation that tested her ability to work in colder, more demanding waters of the North Pacific. In March 1990, she wrapped up her first six-month deployment to the Western Pacific, which included participation in the large multinational RIMPAC 1990 exercise and an operational test launch of the then-new Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile from her VLS cells. In the first half of 1991, she carried out two back-to-back Northern Pacific patrols and contributed to testing of the Mk 50 Advanced Lightweight Torpedo, reflecting the Navy's focus on advanced antisubmarine warfare capabilities as the Soviet Union collapsed and the maritime balance in the Pacific began to shift.

After the Gulf War, HELENA continued a steady rhythm of deployments from Pearl Harbor. In August 1992, she began her second six-month Western Pacific deployment, followed later that year by an Eastern Pacific deployment along the West Coast. In 1993, she became the first U.S. submarine to provide direct support to an Amphibious Readiness Group's deployment certification, operating with amphibious forces as they prepared for contingencies in the post-Gulf War Middle East. In October 1993, she departed on her third Western Pacific deployment as part of the battle group centered on the aircraft carrier USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62), operating across the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf during a period when the United States was enforcing sanctions on Iraq and maintaining a strong naval presence in the region, before returning to Pearl Harbor in April 1994.

Back in Hawaii, HELENA took part in RIMPAC 1994 in May and conducted Prospective Commanding Officer operations for future submarine COs. The remainder of 1994 was devoted to her second Selected Restricted Availability at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, during which maintenance and upgrades were completed. For her performance that year, she was singled out as the top submarine in SUBMARINE SQUADRON SEVEN and received the Battle Efficiency "E" award. After the yard period, she resumed local operations in the Pearl Harbor operating areas, building up again for long deployments. From June to December 1995, she carried out her fourth Western Pacific deployment, her operations reflecting the ongoing routine of U.S. forward presence in the Western Pacific in the immediate post-Cold War decade. The following year, 1996, she remained focused on local operations from Pearl Harbor, conducting training and exercises without an extended deployment.

In early 1997, HELENA completed work-ups for another long cruise and from April to September 1997 undertook her fifth Western Pacific deployment. Immediately after returning, she left the Pacific theater, conducting an inter-fleet transfer to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, for a major overhaul. On February 26, 1998, she entered dry dock there for a Depot Modernization Period expected to last about a year. The work package was substantial: replacement of her reactor coolant pumps, installation of entirely new fire-control and sonar suites, and fitting a modern microprocessor-based reactor-plant instrumentation system, effectively bringing a mid-life upgrade to much of her combat and engineering plant. The availability, which ran from March 1998 to March 1999, was regarded within the Navy as an exceptionally successful example of this type of overhaul.

On April 23, 1999, HELENA arrived at her new homeport, Naval Submarine Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, after a four-week transit from Kittery that included port calls at Port Canaveral, Florida, and Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. Later in 1999, she conducted a Northern Pacific operation from October through November. During that deployment she prosecuted a Russian OSCAR II-class guided-missile submarine so effectively that the Secretary of the Navy issued a special citation recognizing the mission, reflecting the continuing shadow interplay between U.S. and Russian submarines even after the Cold War.

On June 26, 2000, HELENA left San Diego for her sixth Western Pacific deployment. Over the following months, she visited ports including Yokosuka and Sasebo in Japan, Jinhae in the Republic of Korea, Apra Harbor in Guam and Singapore. During this cruise, she participated in PACIFIC REACH 2000, the first multinational submarine rescue exercise in the Western Pacific, hosted by Singapore and involving the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the Republic of Korea Navy and the Republic of Singapore Navy. The exercise centered on interoperability in submarine rescue, with HELENA acting as one of the participating submarines alongside allied boats such as the ROKN submarine CHOE MUSEON, which was photographed passing HELENA as both units entered Sembawang in late September 2000. HELENA completed the deployment and returned to San Diego in December 2000.

In early 2001, HELENA remained in the Southern California operating areas, providing services and training. During April and May 2001, she underwent an intense upkeep period in which the BQQ-10 ARCI Phase III sonar system was installed, significantly improving her acoustic processing capability. In June 2001, she made an Eastern Pacific deployment that included a port visit to Astoria, Oregon, and from July to October she took part in local and joint fleet training exercises. Her performance earned her recognition as the top submarine in SUBMARINE SQUADRON ELEVEN for 2001 and another Battle Efficiency "E". Early in 2002, she again received intensive maintenance and upgrades, then from March to May 2002 deployed to the Western Pacific for the seventh time. On that cruise, she participated in under-ice exercises and supported the carrier battle group centered on USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63), visiting Guam, Japanese ports and Pearl Harbor before returning to San Diego. From June to August 2002, she received a completely new fire-control system and further communications upgrades to prepare her for the emerging demands of the post-9/11 environment.

In 2003, HELENA carried out extensive acoustic testing of her newly installed systems and undertook another Western Pacific deployment, visiting ports in Korea, Australia and Japan. For this year's operations she again received the Battle "E" and, in addition, a Meritorious Unit Commendation, underscoring sustained performance through the early years of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. In 2004, she ranged widely from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest in support of Chief of Naval Operations projects and the work-ups of multiple major formations, including the USS BELLEAU WOOD (LHA 3) expeditionary strike group, the carrier strike groups centered on USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72) and USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70), and the USS BONHOMME RICHARD (LHD 6) amphibious group. She also supported testing of the MH-60R multi-mission helicopter, trials for the converted guided-missile submarine USS GEORGIA (SSGN 729), and evaluation of new Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment, reflecting her role as a fleet workhorse in both operational and developmental tasks.

In 2005, HELENA departed San Diego for her eighth Western Pacific deployment. Over roughly six months she again operated in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, conducting two missions described by the Navy as vital to national security and participating in a major joint air and sea exercise. She visited Apra Harbor, Singapore, and Japanese ports including Sasebo and Yokosuka before returning to Naval Base Point Loma on September 18, 2005, having completed another extended cruise in support of U.S. presence and contingency operations in the Western Pacific.

During the mid-2000s, HELENA alternated between deployments and significant maintenance. Photographs and open sources show her in dry dock at Naval Base Point Loma in 2006 and operating at sea off the U.S. West Coast. In 2007, she took part in exercises in the Pacific that included training with the amphibious transport dock USS NEW ORLEANS (LPD 18), reflecting the emphasis on integrated expeditionary and undersea warfare at that time.

HELENA's next major cruise began when she departed Naval Base Point Loma on January 30, 2008, for another Western Pacific deployment. She entered and then departed Sasebo, Japan, after a four-day port visit ending February 24, 2008, and spent the following months on patrols, exercises and theater security operations across the region. She returned to San Diego on July 30, 2008, after approximately six months at sea.

On February 27, 2009, HELENA left San Diego to participate in ICE EXERCISE (ICEX) 2009 in the Arctic. Together with the attack submarine USS ANNAPOLIS (SSN 760), she operated under the ice in the Beaufort Sea, about 200 miles north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. For roughly two months, from late February to late April, the two boats worked with the Navy's Arctic Submarine Laboratory and an ice camp run by the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory, using a temporary tracking range built on the ice. Operating in the challenging Arctic environment tested weapons, combat systems, navigation and communications in high-latitude conditions. During the exercise a detachment of Royal Navy personnel joined the camp, and on March 21, 2009, personnel at the camp and aboard HELENA and ANNAPOLIS observed a moment of silence commemorating two British sailors killed in an explosion aboard HMS TIRELESS during an earlier Arctic exercise in 2007. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead visited the ice camp during the exercise, emphasizing the strategic significance of the Arctic. HELENA returned to San Diego on April 17, 2009, after about 50 days away, having demonstrated under-ice capability at a time of growing interest in Arctic security.

Later in 2009, HELENA shifted to the East Coast. Photographs show her at Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, in August 2009. Over the following years she began transitioning out of her long association with San Diego. After additional operations and a period of extended maintenance at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, she completed an inter-fleet transfer to the Atlantic. By May 2011, she was photographed in Portsmouth, and in June 2011 she arrived at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, which became her new homeport. Navy imagery from that period explicitly notes that she reached Norfolk after departing San Diego and undergoing extended maintenance in Kittery, marking the end of her long Pacific-based phase and the beginning of an Atlantic/Mediterranean career under COMSUBRON 6.

From 2011 into 2013, HELENA operated primarily from Norfolk, conducting Atlantic and Mediterranean training and presence operations as she integrated into East Coast tasking. In 2013, she undertook a deployment that combined the U.S. 6th Fleet and 5th Fleet areas of responsibility. Open sources and Navy accounts indicate a six-month cruise culminating in October 2013, characterized as a U.S. Central Command deployment. During this deployment, HELENA conducted maritime security operations and cooperative activities in the Arabian Gulf and Mediterranean and made port calls including Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates and Rota, Spain. On September 23, 2013, she entered Souda Bay, Crete, for a five-day port visit. Images from Souda Bay show HELENA alongside as part of that stop, with departure recorded on September 28. On October 15, 2013, she moored at Naval Station Norfolk after the six-month deployment, having traveled more than 50,000 miles.

HELENA deployed again the following year. On November 15, 2014, she departed Norfolk on a scheduled deployment that again took her through European and Middle Eastern waters. She moored at South Mole in HM Naval Base Gibraltar on November 28 for a six-day port call at the entrance to the Mediterranean, then on December 10 visited Aksaz Naval Base on the Turkish coast before transiting the Suez Canal southbound around December 14 to enter the Red Sea and U.S. 5th Fleet. On December 23, she moored at Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Bahrain for an "inchop" brief as she shifted fully into Central Command tasking. After several months of operations in and around the Arabian Gulf, she began her return transit. On April 13, 2015, she again passed northbound through the Suez Canal, escorted by the destroyer USS FORREST SHERMAN (DDG 98), and shortly afterward called at Souda Bay once more. On May 15, 2015, HELENA returned to Naval Station Norfolk after roughly six months deployed to the 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility, having steamed more than 38,500 nautical miles and again visited Jebel Ali during the deployment.

One month later, on June 15, 2015, HELENA held a change-of-command ceremony on board at Norfolk, in which Commander Jason C. Pittman relieved Commander Jeffrey E. Lamphear as commanding officer, with the boat's recent Central Command deployment highlighted in official remarks.

HELENA continued to support carrier and strike-group training from the East Coast. On March 24, 2016, she was photographed transiting the Atlantic Ocean alongside the aircraft carrier USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) during a Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) for the carrier's strike group, providing realistic opposition and integrated undersea training in preparation for that group's deployment.

In late 2016, the Navy decided to send HELENA to Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia for a Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability, part of an effort to increase attack-submarine maintenance capacity by reintroducing private yards to complex nuclear-powered submarine work. A planning contract for HELENA's dry-docking availability at Newport News was awarded around September 2016, and she entered the yard in late 2017. During this period, she still managed at least one more forward deployment: by early 2017 she was at sea again, departing HMNB Clyde at Faslane after a routine port call on May 5 and taking part in NATO antisubmarine warfare exercise EASTLANT 17 in the Norwegian Sea from May 8-26. On June 4, 2017, she moored at the Arsenal de Brest, France, for a port visit that coincided with the 73rd anniversary of the D-Day landings. Crew members traveled to Normandy to visit memorial sites and conduct reenlistment and warfare-qualification ceremonies at Omaha Beach. Two and a half weeks later, on June 21, 2017, HELENA returned to Naval Station Norfolk after completing a six-month deployment to the U.S. European and Central Command areas, during which she steamed more than 35,000 nautical miles and visited Haakonsvern, Norway, Faslane in Scotland and Brest.

Once fully committed to the Newport News availability, HELENA spent several years out of frontline service. By May 4, 2018, she was in dry dock at Newport News Shipbuilding for a Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability, with a change-of-command ceremony held at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News marking Commander Andrew M. Cain's assumption of command while the boat remained in overhaul. The availability, begun on a relatively modest planning basis, expanded into a lengthy and complex effort to repair, modernize and upgrade one of the oldest boats in the LOS ANGELES-class still in service. Contract modifications in 2020 and 2021 increased funding for ongoing work, and Navy and industry sources later acknowledged that HELENA's overhaul suffered from schedule overruns and workforce challenges as the private yard rebuilt submarine-repair proficiency after years focused mainly on new construction.

Despite those difficulties, the availability eventually reached completion. According to Navy and industry reporting, HELENA's maintenance at Newport News stretched for more than five years, and she was finally redelivered to the fleet in early 2022, becoming the first attack submarine completed under the renewed private-yard repair initiative. Internal Navy reviews and later public commentary treated her overhaul as a case study, with lessons learned used to improve subsequent submarine availabilities at the yard.

After returning to operational status, HELENA rejoined the Atlantic attack-submarine force under COMSUBRON 6 at Norfolk. Publicly available details of her day-to-day operations in 2022-2023 are limited, reflecting the generally classified nature of modern submarine employment, but she resumed fleet tasking, exercises and training following the extended yard period.

In 2024, HELENA again drew wider public attention. On May 24, 2024, while she was pier-side at Naval Station Norfolk, Sonar Technician (Submarine) 3rd Class Timothy Sanders died aboard the submarine following an electrocution accident. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened an investigation, and the incident was widely reported in naval and local media, highlighting safety and maintenance concerns in the context of HELENA's long and complex repair history.

The same year, HELENA briefly became a visible symbol of U.S.-Russian naval signaling in the Western Hemisphere. In June 2024, a small Russian Navy task group, including the frigate ADMIRAL GORSHKOV and a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived in Havana, Cuba, for exercises and port calls. Shortly thereafter, HELENA was photographed and publicly acknowledged in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, having arrived at the U.S. naval base there in what U.S. officials framed as a routine deployment but one clearly timed to coincide with the Russian visit. Media reports noted that the Navy had "revealed" HELENA's presence at Guantanamo in response to the Russian flotilla's Caribbean cruise, underscoring the continued use of nuclear-powered attack submarines as instruments of strategic signaling as well as covert surveillance.

By mid-2024 the Navy had also begun to position HELENA for retirement. In the summer of that year, she arrived at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington, to begin an inactivation process at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, as local and Navy League reporting recorded community events welcoming the boat to the region in August 2024. From that point, she was gradually drawn down from active deployment status and prepared for decommissioning, with her nuclear fuel to be defueled and the hull ultimately scheduled for disposal in accordance with standard U.S. practices for nuclear-powered submarines.

In 2025, HELENA's long career formally came to an end. On May 9, 2025, according to official announcements, Commander Kyle Jones relieved Commander Jonathan P. Scobo as the boat's last commanding officer during a change-of-command ceremony held at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington, reflecting HELENA's new status as an inactivating unit under the Pacific submarine commands. On July 25, 2025, her crew held a decommissioning ceremony at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport. The event, attended by current and former crew, community representatives from her namesake city in Montana and Navy leadership, marked the official retirement of HELENA after 38 years of service. DVIDS, Navy and press accounts confirm that on that date HELENA was formally decommissioned following the ceremony, closing a career that had begun with her commissioning at Groton on July 11, 1987, and had included repeated Western Pacific deployments out of Pearl Harbor and San Diego, under-ice operations in the Arctic, extensive contributions to multinational exercises and strike-group preparations, Middle Eastern and European deployments from Norfolk, a prolonged maintenance saga at Newport News Shipbuilding and final inactivation and decommissioning in the Pacific Northwest.

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Accidents aboard USS HELENA:

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USS HELENA Patch Gallery

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USS HELENA Image Gallery

The photos below were taken by me on August 23, 2010, and show the HELENA undergoing overhaul at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, NH.

The photo below was taken by me on May 6, 2012, and shows the HELENA at Naval Base Norfolk, Va.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HELENA at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 8, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HELENA at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on December 26, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HELENA at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 9, 2023.

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