USS Helena, a 13,600 ton Baltimore class heavy cruiser, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned in September 1945, she took part in the Navy Day fleet review off New York City in October of that year. In February 1946, she went to European waters as flagship for the 12th Fleet. In May, she steamed through the Suez Canal to take station in the Far East on the first of her fourteen "WestPac" deployments.

Helena had just completed her third tour in the Western Pacific when the outbreak of the Korean War caused her recall. From July into October 1950 she provided heavy gunfire to counter the North Korean onslaught and, after the Inchon Invasion in mid-September, to support the United Nations forces' offensive. Two more Korean War cruises took place in 1951 and 1952. Helena received minor damage from a hit by enemy coastal artillery in July 1951. In December 1952, at the end of her third combat deployment, she carried President-Elect Eisenhower from Guam to Hawaii after his post-election visit to Korea.

Following the Korean War, Helena continued her visits to Asiatic waters. She supported the Tachen Islands evacuation in 1955, was on hand during the Quemoy crisis in September 1958 and rescued passengers and crew from the stranded merchant ship Hoi Wong in October 1958. The cruiser was refitted in 1960 to become flagship of the U.S. First Fleet and made a final cruise to the Western Pacific in mid-1961. USS Helena decommissioned in June 1963 and, after more than a decade in reserve, was sold for scrapping in October 1974.