Comments/Citation:
This Military Service Page was created by Felix Cervantes, III (Admiral Ese), BM2 to remember Powers, Joe, QM3.
Joe O'Neil Powers – KIA Aboard USS Helena (CL-50) Pearl Harbor 7 Dec 1941
Joe Powers Was a WWII Hero that Helped Preserve Our Freedom.
Joe Powers was born in Wayne, Cass County, Michigan on October 2, 1919. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Joe’s father, Earl, 39, worked as a laborer at a produce house. His mother, Ethel, 32, had three children living at home at this time; Warner, 11, Pearl, 10, and Joe, a new born.
Ten years later, the 1930 U.S. Census lists the family as living at 320 Depoket Street in Constantine, Michigan. Joe’s siblings Warner and Pearl were not recorded on this census, but twins Jack and Jean, one year old’s, were added to the family.
Powers enlisted in the Navy on June 21, 1939. After basic training, Joe became a crew member of the ill-fated light cruiser USS Helena CL-50 on September 19, 1939. He attained the rate of Storekeeper, Third Class with an enlisted Service Number of 311 32 91.
USS Helena (CL-50) was a Brooklyn-class light cruiser built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s, the ninth and final member of the class. The Brooklyns were the first modern light cruisers built by the US Navy under the limitations of the London Naval Treaty, and they were intended to counter the Japanese Mogami class; as such, they carried a battery of fifteen 6-inch (150 mm) guns, the same gun armament carried by the Mogamis. Helena and her sister St. Louis were built to a slightly modified design with a unit system of machinery and an improved anti-aircraft battery. Completed in late 1939, Helena spent the first two years of her career in peacetime training that accelerated as tensions between the United States and Japan increased through 1941.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) was in the berth that the USS Pennsylvania usually occupied. Because of this, she became a target of the Japanese. As the battleships of the Pacific Fleet were the focus of the attack, the Japanese pilots were gunning for Pennsylvania but were unaware that the battleship was in dry dock across the harbor. Within moments of the call to General Quarters, Helena was struck on her starboard side by a torpedo. She began to flood but her crew managed to get it under control. This allowed for a generator to power her gun mounts. The men aboard the Helena fought back. 34 of her men were killed in the attack. Despite the damage she sustained, Helena returned to service in June of 1942.
Tragically, Joe Powers was one of the 34 KIA. He was buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. The location of the headstone is PLOT C 40 with a MEMORIAL ID of 56119548. He was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously.
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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.
Resources:
https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=144
https://pearlharbor.org/wreckage-of-uss-helena-located/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56119548/joe-o'neil-powers
https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Joe+O%27Neil+_Powers&event=_michigan-
1920 US CENSUS
1930 US Census
U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949
Joyce, Robert (SBTS Historian), AT2
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