title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: On 12 November, Callaghan's ships and their transport vessels arrived off Guadalcanal, and while they unloaded, a Japanese artillery battery opened fire on the transports. "Helena" and then some of the destroyers returned fire to suppress the Japanese gunners. A Japanese airstrike interrupted the work; two ships were damaged but "Helena" emerged unscathed. Reconnaissance aircraft detected the approach of the Japanese bombardment force, the convoy, and a detached group of destroyers. Turner believed that the Japanese aimed to either attack TF 67.4 and the transports as they withdrew that night or to bombard the Americans on Guadalcanal; he decided to keep Callaghan's unit off Guadalcanal and to send the convoy off with an escort of just three destroyers and two destroyer minesweepers, as TF 16 was too far south to be able to reach the area. Callaghan escorted the convoy through Lengo Channel before turning back west to position his ships between the Japanese squadron and the garrison on Guadalcanal. The approaching Japanese force, commanded by RADM Hiroaki Abe, centered on the battleships and .


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Callaghan arranged his ships in a single column, as Scott had done at Cape Esperance, and he similarly failed to realize the advantage that the SG-radar-equipped ships provided, eschewing those vessels so-equipped for "San Francisco". Scott had transferred to "Atlanta", which did not mount an SG, but it was placed as the frontmost cruiser. Abe's ships reached the area off Cape Esperance at around 01:25 on 13 November, by which time his vessels had fallen into disarray due to bad weather that greatly hampered visibility. The destroyers he believed were screening his advance were in fact out of position. Abe was aware of Callaghan's presence off Guadalcanal earlier in the day, but did not know his current whereabouts. At 01:30, he received a report from observers that there were no American vessels off Lunga Point, leading him to order his ships to begin preparations for a bombardment. By this time, "Helena" had already picked up Abe's ships six minutes before at a distance of . Callaghan was not aware, as "San Francisco" had not yet detected the Japanese.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Both sides' destroyers encountered each other at 01:42; continued confusion on Callaghan's part led to contradictory orders that threw the American squadron into disarray just as the two forces collided. In the ensuing close-range melee, he ordered "odd ships fire to starboard, even ships fire to port", although he had not assigned any numbering system beforehand. Abe received incomplete reports from his destroyers, causing him to hesitate briefly before ordering his ships to open fire at 01:48. As the American and Japanese ships engaged each other in the chaotic battle, "Helena" initially engaged the destroyer , disabling her searchlight but drawing return fire that did insignificant damage. Bombarded by several other vessels, "Akatsuki" exploded under heavy fire and quickly sank. "Helena" then shifted fire to the destroyer at 02:04, only to be forced to check her fire when "San Francisco" passed between the two vessels. "Helena" nevertheless scored several hits that forced "Amatsukaze" to disengage; the Japanese destroyer was only saved from destruction by an attack by the destroyers , , and that caused "Helena" to engage them. "Murasame" received a hit that disabled one of her boiler rooms, forcing her to withdraw as well, while "Samidare" was set on fire.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: During this period, one of her 40 mm guns fired at the cruiser as she steamed in the opposite direction. "Helena" then continued to maneuver among both sides' burning vessels, firing on a number of retreating Japanese vessels. As "San Francisco", which had been badly damaged by "Hiei", continued on through the melee, "Helena" turned to follow her to try to protect her from further harm. In the course of the 38-minute action, the American squadron was badly damaged and both Callaghan and Scott were killed in the confused fighting, the latter by friendly fire from "San Francisco". "Helena" emerged relatively unscathed, having received five hits that did negligible damage and killed one man. Two American destroyers were sunk, three more were disabled, as were two cruisers. In return, "Hiei" was badly damaged and would later be scuttled after repeated American air attacks the next day prevented her withdrawal; one destroyer had been sunk and a second was badly damaged. And more importantly, Callaghan's ships had prevented Abe from bombarding the airfield on Guadalcanal.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Hoover, the senior surviving officer in the shattered American squadron, ordered all vessels still in action to withdraw to the southeast at 02:26 while the Japanese retreated in the opposite direction. Hoover collected "San Francisco", "Juneau", "Sterett", and "O'Bannon" and escorted them south. At 11:00, the Japanese submarine fired a spread of torpedoes at "San Francisco" that missed, but one hit "Juneau". The torpedo detonated one of the ship's magazines and combined with the damage she had sustained the previous night, caused her to rapidly sink. Hoover decided that "Helena" was too valuable to risk stopping to pick up what he assumed to be very few survivors, and the other vessels in the group were too damaged to stop either. He instead signaled to a passing B-17 bomber, but the report of "Juneau"s fate was not delivered promptly, preventing other vessels from attempting rescue operations. Admiral William Halsey subsequently relieved Hoover of command, citing his failure to ensure a prompt report of the sinking was made, to attack the submarine, or to mount rescue operations. After the war, Halsey expressed regret over the episode, noting that Hoover had been exhausted by the previous night's fighting and that he had been motivated by the need to preserve his ship and those under his temporary command. Captain Charles P. Cecil replaced Hoover as the ship's commander.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Beginning in January 1943, "Helena" took part in several attacks on Japanese positions on the island of New Georgia in preparation for the planned New Georgia campaign. The first of these took place from 1 to 4 January, when "Helena" (still as part of TF 67) covered a group of seven transports carrying elements of the 25th Infantry Division to Guadalcanal. The unit at that time included six other cruisers and five destroyers, and was commanded by RADM Walden L. Ainsworth. Ainsworth left four cruisers and three destroyers to cover the convoy on the 4th, taking "Helena", her sisters and , and two destroyers to bombard Munda in the early hours of 5 January. The ships fired a total of some 4,000 shells, but inflicted little significant damage to the Japanese airfield. The ships returned to Guadalcanal at 09:00 and began recovering their reconnaissance floatplanes when a Japanese airstrike arrived and damaged two of the other cruisers, though "Helena" was not targeted. The ship had received the new 5-inch shells fitted with proximity VT fuses, and her use marked the first time they were used successfully in combat.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: "Helena" and the rest of her unit then returned to Espiritu Santo to refuel and replenish ammunition, remaining there until the morning of 22 January. Halsey had ordered Ainsworth to make an attack on Vila on the island of Kolombangara to neutralize the airfield there, and on 23 January he conducted a feint toward Munda to throw off Japanese aircraft who might have launched night torpedo attacks against his vessels. As at Munda, Ainsworth left a pair of cruisers and three destroyers to provide distant support while he took "Helena", "Nashville", and four destroyers into Kula Gulf to shell the airstrip. A "Black Cat" PBY Catalina provided spotting support while the two cruisers fired around 3,500 shells from the main and secondary gun, inflicting significant damage on the airfield and equipment. The Japanese launched group of eleven floatplanes to scout for Ainsworth's cruisers while a second group of thirty Mitsubishi G4M bombers, but the American ships used rain squalls to evade the floatplanes, along with long-range 5-inch fire directed by the SC and FD radars to keep the aircraft at bay. At dawn, a group of five P-38 fighters arrived to escort the ships during their continued withdrawal.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: On 25 January, "Helena" and the rest of the squadron arrived back in Espiritu Santo. "Helena" continued to operate with TF 67, patrolling for Japanese vessels and escorting convoys to Guadalcanal as that campaign ground on into February. She was present as part of the distant support for the convoy operation that resulted in the Battle of Rennell Island on 29–30 January, but TF 64 was too far south to come to the aid of TF 18 during the action. On 11 February, the submarine attempted to torpedo "Helena" while cruising off Espiritu Santo, but the cruiser's escorting destroyers, "Fletcher" and "O'Bannon", sank the submarine with assistance from one of "Helena"s Seagull floatplanes. "Helena" thereafter went to Sydney, Australia, on 28 February, arriving there on 6 March for an overhaul. She was taken to the Sutherland Dock in the Cockatoo Island Dockyard on 15 March for repair work that lasted two days. She then got underway on 26 March to return north to Espiritu Santo to resume bombardment operations against New Georgia as part of what was now designated TF 68.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: "Helena" arrived in Espiritu Santo on 30 March and rejoined Ainsworth's unit. As the preparations for the New Georgia campaign increased, the ships made repeated patrols into the Slot. Ainsworth's cruisers were also occupied with extensive training for the upcoming operations. While off Guadalcanal refueling from a tanker, "Helena" received instructions to get underway as quickly as possible, as a large Japanese airstrike was detected on radar. She and the rest of the cruiser unit steamed to the northwest of Savo Island to avoid the raid; they escaped damage, but the attack forced the Americans to cancel the planned cruiser patrol that night. On the night of 12–13 May, Ainsworth took his cruisers to shell Vila and Munda. "Helena" was tasked with bombarding the former and she fired a total of 1,000 shells at the island during the attack.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The invasion of New Georgia began on 30 June; "Helena" and the rest of TF 68 patrolled at the northern end of the Coral Sea; at that time, she cruised with "St. Louis", "Honolulu", and their escorting destroyer screen that consisted of "O'Bannon", , , and . By 1 July, the ships were about south of New Georgia, and on 3 July they reached Tulagi, where a false report of a Japanese airstrike briefly sent the ships' crews to their battle stations. The Allied plan called for a second landing on New Georgia in the Kula Gulf on the northeastern side of the island. A landing here would block the resupply route for the Japanese forces fighting on the island and it would also deny their use of the gulf to escape once they were defeated, as they had done on Guadalcanal.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Having attacked the Japanese positions around the Kula Gulf on several occasions, Ainsworth knew that the Japanese would be expecting further attacks as the New Georgia campaign got underway. He instructed the cruiser commanders to expect Japanese naval forces to intervene, to be prepared to evacuate damaged ships, and if necessary, to beach badly damaged vessels in the Rice Anchorage. On 4 July, the American invasion force—assault troops loaded aboard destroyer transports—departed Tulagi at 15:47, with "Honolulu" in the lead, followed by "St Louis" and "Helena". The four destroyers took up positions around them to screen for submarines, while the destroyer transports sailed independently. At the same time, a group of three Japanese destroyers, , , and , left Bougainville with a contingent of 1,300 infantry aboard to reinforce the garrison on New Georgia.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: "Nicholas" and "Strong" reached Kula Gulf first, scanning it with their radar and sonar sets to determine if any Japanese warships were in the area. The cruisers and other two destroyers then entered the gulf to prepare to bombard Japanese positions at Vila. "Honolulu" opened fire first 00:26 on 5 July and Cecil ordered "Helena"s gunners to follow suit ninety seconds later. Black Cats circling overhead coordinated the ships' fire. The other vessels quickly joined in the bombardment, which lasted about fourteen minutes before the American column turned east to move to the Rice Anchorage to shell targets there. After six minutes of shooting, the ships departed, "Helena" having fired over a thousand rounds of 6- and 5-inch shells in the two bombardments. During the latter period, "Helena"s crew noted shell splashes from Japanese artillery batteries near the ship, but none of the American vessels were hit. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the three Japanese destroyers had arrived in the gulf while they were still shooting. Illuminated by the gun flashes, the American vessels were quickly identified by the Japanese over away.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The transport group then entered the gulf and steamed close to the shore to prevent intermingling with Ainsworth's squadron, which had turned north at 12:39 to leave the gulf. Captain Kanaoka Kunizo, the senior destroyer commander in charge of the reinforcement operation, decided to withdraw as well to avoid engaging a superior force with his ships loaded with soldiers and supplies. "Niizuki", the only radar-equipped destroyer, directed the aim of all three vessels, which launched a total of fourteen Long Lance torpedoes before withdrawing at high speed to escape back to Bougainville. One of these torpedoes struck "Strong", which was still stationed at the entrance of the gulf on sentry duty. The destroyer was fatally damaged, but the attack alerted Ainsworth that there were Japanese warships in the area. "O'Bannon" and "Chevalier" were detached to pick up survivors while Ainsworth prepared to search for the submarine he assumed to have been responsible, as none of his ships had detected the three Japanese destroyers on their radars. "Strong" sank at 01:22, with 239 of her crew taken off by the other destroyers, though some additional survivors were missed in the darkness and were later picked up by the transport group. Ainsworth's ships then resumed their cruising formation at 02:15 for the voyage back to Tulagi.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: During the bombardment, the shell hoist for the left gun in turret No. 5 broke down, while propellant cases repeatedly jammed in turret No. 2; work on the turrets began immediately as the vessels steamed back to Tulagi. The ammunition hoist was quickly restored to working order, but the gun in turret No. 2 took more than five hours of work before the jammed case could be removed and replaced with a modified short case that allowed the shell that was still in the gun to be fired, clearing it for normal use. At 07:00, the destroyer joined the squadron, which reached Tulagi in the early afternoon, where the ships immediately began refueling. Shortly thereafter, Ainsworth received orders from Halsey to return to Kula Gulf, as reconnaissance aircraft had spotted Japanese destroyers departing from Bougainville to attempt the planned reinforcement run that he had inadvertently disrupted the night before. Ainsworth was to intercept the destroyers and prevent the landing of more Japanese forces on the island. He ordered the ships to end refueling and prepare to get underway; "Jenkins" replaced "Strong" and the destroyer took the place of "Chevalier", which had been damaged in an accidental collision with the sinking "Strong".


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Since the previous night's reinforcement run had been aborted, the Japanese assembled a group of ten destroyers to make a larger effort the next night. "Niizuki"—now the flagship of Rear Admiral Teruo Akiyama—and the destroyers and were to escort the other seven destroyers—"Nagatsuki", , , , , "Hatsuyuki", and —carried 2,400 troops and supplies. Meanwhile, the American force intending to block their advance had formed up by 19:30 and began the voyage back up the Slot. As the Americans steamed toward Kula Gulf, the crews got their vessels ready for action, including closing all of the watertight doors to reduce the risk of flooding and turning off all lights to prevent detection by the Japanese.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The American squadron passed Visuvisu Point at the entrance to the gulf early on 6 July, at which point the vessels reduced speed to . Visibility was poor owing to heavy cloud cover. Ainsworth had no information as to the specific composition or location of the Japanese force, and patrolling Black Cats could not detect them in the conditions. The Japanese destroyers had already entered the gulf and begun unloading their cargoes; "Niizuki" detected the American ships on her radar at 01:06 at a range of about . Akiyama took his flagship, "Suzukaze", and "Tanikaze" to observe the Americans at 01:43 while the other destroyers continued to disembark the soldiers and supplies; by that time, Ainsworth's ships had already detected the three ships off Kolombangara at 01:36. As the two sides continued to close, Akiyama recalled the other destroyers to launch an attack. The American vessels transitioned into a line ahead formation, with "Nicholas" and "O'Bannon" ahead of the cruisers; the line turned left to close the range to the Japanese vessels before turning right to move toward an advantageous firing position.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The American radars picked up Akiyama's escort detachment along with another group of destroyers that was racing to join him; Ainsworth decided to attack the first group and then turn about to engage the second. At about 01:57, the American vessels opened up with radar-directed rapid fire. Between the three cruisers, they fired around close to 1,500 shells from their 6-inch batteries in the span of just five minutes. "Helena" quickly expended the flashless propellant charges that had been kept after the previous night's bombardment mission, thereafter transitioning to normal smokeless propellant, which created large flashes every time the guns fired. "Helena" initially targeted the leading destroyer—"Niizuki"—with her main battery while her 5-inch guns engaged the following vessel. "Niizuki" also received heavy fire from the other American ships and was quickly sunk, taking Akiyama down with her. "Helena" then shifted fire to the next closest vessel, but by that time, "Suzukaze" and "Tanikaze" had both launched eight torpedoes at the American line. They then fled to the northwest, using heavy smoke to conceal themselves while their crews reloaded their torpedo tubes. Both destroyers received minor hits during their temporary withdrawal but were not seriously damaged.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Ainsworth instructed his ships to turn to the right at 02:03 to begin engaging the second group of destroyers, but shortly thereafter three of "Suzukaze"s or "Tanikaze"s torpedoes struck "Helena" on the port side, inflicting serious damage. The first torpedo hit about from the bow, abreast of the forward-most turret about below the waterline. It caused a major explosion that may have been the result of a magazine detonation. The blast destroyed the No. 1 turret, tore open the hull almost to the keel, and severed the bow from the rest of the hull. The rest of the hull began to flood as the force of the blast collapsed bulkheads below turret No. 2. But even after the severe damage inflicted by the first torpedo, the aft main guns continued to fire, and the ship had not yet been fatally damaged. She remained able to steam at 25 knots despite the increased drag.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Two minutes after the first torpedo hit, the second and third torpedoes struck the ship in quick succession, much lower in the hull than the first had hit, as much as below the waterline. This was below where the ship's belt armor might have reduced the scale of damage inflicted. These hit further aft in the machinery spaces, breaking the keel, flooding the forward engine and boiler rooms, and breaching bulkheads that allowed water into the aft engine room. The flooding disabled the ship's engines and left her immobilized and without electrical power. Another gaping hole had been blasted into the hull, which exacerbated the flooding caused by the first hit. It quickly became clear that "Helena" would not be able to survive these hits, and two minutes after the third hit, Cecil gave the order to abandon ship. He remained on the bridge with a signalman who attempted to flash a distress message with a signal lamp to no avail. Cecil then ordered another man to dump classified documents overboard before he ordered those still on the bridge to evacuate as well.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: With the keel having been broken by the second and third hit, the girders that supported the hull structure began to buckle, collapsing the entire structure amidships and breaking the hull in half. The center third of the ship quickly sank but the bow and stern remained afloat for some time before flooding caused them both to point upward as they filled with water. Ainsworth and the other vessels' captains were not immediately aware that "Helena" had been disabled owing to the course change, the general confusion that resulted from heavy smoke and gunfire during the battle, and the fact that most attention was directed at the oncoming second group of Japanese destroyers. In the ensuing action, several of the Japanese destroyers were hit and forced to disengage, after which Ainsworth attempted to reorganize his force at around 02:30. He quickly realized that "Helena" was not responding to radio messages and ordered his ships to begin searching for the missing cruiser. At 03:13, "Radford"s radar picked up a contact some away. The destroyer closed with it and confirmed it was "Helena"s bow pointing up, out of the water.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Ainsworth ordered "Radford" to immediately begin the search for survivors and shortly thereafter instructed "Nicholas" to join the rescue operation. Ainsworth ordered the destroyers to proceed to the Russell Islands by dawn to avoid being attacked by Japanese aircraft. The remaining pair of destroyers screened "Honolulu" and "St. Louis" as they withdrew to avoid the possibility of a retaliatory Japanese air attack. Nearly a thousand men were in the water, clinging to life rafts and waiting to be picked up by the destroyers, which reached the men at 03:41. Some men had brought flashlights when they abandoned "Helena" to signal their position to the destroyers. As the destroyers moved into position, their crews hung nets over the sides for survivors to climb. But shortly after the rescue effort began, "Nicholas" radar operators detected a contact approaching at high speed; both she and "Radford" broke off the rescue operation to prepare to engage "Suzukaze" and "Tanikaze", both of which had turned northwest to reload their tubes after torpedoing "Helena". They had returned southeast to search for "Niizuki" but after failing to locate her, they withdrew, having come within of "Nicholas".


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: With the Japanese destroyers having departed, "Nicholas" and "Radford" returned to resume rescue operations at 04:15. The destroyers lowered their whaleboats to assist with the search for survivors. At 05:15, the destroyers' radar sets picked up "Amagiri" approaching; the latter was also searching for "Niizuki" when lookouts spotted the two American destroyers. "Amagiri" turned to engage as "Nicholas" and "Radford" did the same. "Nicholas" and "Amagiri" launched torpedoes at each other before closing and engaging with guns before "Amagiri" broke off and disengaged to the west. During the short engagement, the whaleboats continued to search for "Helena" survivors. At around 06:00, the destroyers had returned, but another radar contact—"Mochizuki"—again prompted their departure. A short skirmish at long range produced no results apart from further delaying rescue operations. In light of Ainsworth's order to avoid being caught by Japanese aircraft and with daylight fast approaching, "Nicholas" and "Radford" withdrew, leaving four of their whaleboats behind to help ferry men to American positions on New Georgia. In the course of the night's operations, "Nicholas" had picked up 291 while "Radford" had rescued 444.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: Cecil, who had survived the sinking and refused to be pulled aboard one of the destroyers, instead took command of the whaleboats that remained behind. He supervised the loading of three of the boats (the fourth had broken its rudder and was of little use) to ensure that none became overloaded and capsized, and directed their route out of the gulf. Each whaleboat pulled a raft. Cecil sought to bring the flotilla away from Japanese-occupied Kolombangara to avoid drawing enemy fire. After sailing for much of the day, the boats finally reached a beach thought to be near American lines, so the boats got as close to shore as they could and the men waded ashore. They had landed at Menakasapa, a small peninsula on the northwestern side of New Georgia, some seven miles north of American lines. The men remained there overnight, as it was too late to try to pass through the dense jungle. In the meantime, another pair of destroyers, and arrived in Kula Gulf to search for survivors from "Helena" early on the morning of 6 July. They combed the waters at the mouth of the gulf before observers aboard the destroyers spotted the men on the beach. "Gwin" sailed as close to the beach as she could get at 07:45, while "Woodworth" covered her approach. After setting fire to the whaleboats, the "Helena" survivors—88 men in total—were picked up by "Gwin" and arrived back in Tulagi at 15:20 that day.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: A significant number of men were still in the water; some life rafts remained in the area, while a number of men had climbed onto the still-floating bow or clung to pieces of floating wreckage. A B-24 Liberator heavy bomber passed the area at low altitude to search for survivors and its pilot reported seeing the men who had climbed aboard the floating bow along with other groups in the water. The bomber also dropped three life rafts, one of which sank. The survivors were subjected to brutal conditions while at sea: few provisions, no shelter from the sun, and no warmth at night when temperatures plummeted. As the day wore on, a group of about 50 men took two rafts in an attempt to reach Kolombangara, but the current proved to be too strong for them to overcome. As the day wore on, the groups of men began to drift apart; the men in one of the rafts rigged an improvised sail in an attempt to reach Vella Lavella, the next island to the west of Kolombangara. Other groups of men were pulled there by the current; as the men reached the coral reef that surrounded the island on 8 July, they were met by locals who helped pull the men to shore and put them in contact with the coastwatcher station.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The coastwatchers organized a relief effort to bring the men inland to avoid the Japanese garrison and the patrols that routinely swept the coastal areas. The Solomon Islanders gathered the groups of men as they made landfall over the course of late 7 to early 8 July and took some of them—104 in total—to the house of a Chinese merchant in the interior of the island. Others were collected at two different points on the island to hide the men from the Japanese; these two groups numbered 50 and 11, respectively. The coastwatchers contacted their superior on Guadalcanal and informed him of the situation on the island. Turner's staff there immediately began making plans to launch a rescue operation, though the number of men to be retrieved from an enemy-occupied island complicated the effort, as the typical methods, via submarine or PT boat, would not be able to accommodate the 165 men on Vella Lavella. They settled on using a pair of destroyer transports to evacuate the men, escorted by eight destroyers. Allied naval forces had not yet penetrated as far as Vella Lavella during the campaign, which brought them dangerously close to strong Japanese naval and air forces.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The plan called for the two smaller groups, both of which were located further north than the main group, to meet inland and proceed to the coast where they would signal the waiting transports. The main group of survivors would proceed to a different evacuation point. The operation was initially planned for 12 July, but reports that Japanese vessels were operating in the area forced a postponement until the night of 15 July (and led to the Second Battle of Kula Gulf). Four destroyers took up a defensive position to the northwest to block a possible attack by Japanese forces while the rest of the force steamed to the south of Kolombangara and then north through the Vella Gulf. At 01:55 on 16 July, the men flashed the recognition signal to the waiting transports, which lowered three Higgins boats to ferry the men to the vessels. Along with the "Helena" survivors, the boats evacuated a downed American pilot and a captured Japanese pilot before the units moved south to the other evacuation point. Again the Higgins boats ferried the group to the transports, along with several Chinese merchants and their families. The flotilla arrived back in Tulagi that afternoon and disembarked the survivors, who were then transferred to the French colony of New Caledonia, where they met the men who had been pulled from the water on the night of the sinking. Out of a crew of almost 1,200, 168 men were killed, either during the battle or while the men were adrift.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: A memorial was erected in Helena, Montana to commemorate both cruisers named "Helena", CL-50 and , including artifacts from both vessels.


title: USS Helena (CL-50)

text: The wreck was discovered on 11 April 2018 by the research ship , operated by Paul Allen during an expedition to the Solomons to search for the wrecks of warships sunk during the fighting there. Allen confirmed the identity of the wreck through the hull number still visible on the stern. The wreck lies at a depth of about .


title: MV Derbyshire

text: MV "Derbyshire" was a British ore-bulk-oil combination carrier built in 1976 by Swan Hunter, as the last in the series of the sextet. She was registered at Liverpool and owned by Bibby Line.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: "Derbyshire" was lost on 9 September 1980 during Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan. All 42 crew members and two of their wives were killed in the sinking. At 91,655 gross register tons, she is the largest British ship ever to have been lost at sea.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: MV "Derbyshire" was launched in late 1975 and entered service in June 1976, as the last ship of the "Bridge"-class combination carrier, originally named "Liverpool Bridge". She and "English Bridge" (later "Worcestershire" and "Kowloon Bridge") were built by the Seabridge Shipping Ltd. consortium for Bibby Line. The ship was laid up for two of its four years of service life.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: In 1978, "Liverpool Bridge" was renamed "Derbyshire", the fourth ship to carry the name in the company's fleet. On 11 July 1980, on what turned out to be the ship's final voyage, "Derbyshire" left Sept-Îles, Quebec, Canada, her destination being Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, though she foundered near Okinawa, in southern Japan. "Derbyshire" was carrying a cargo of 157,446 tonnes of iron ore.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: On 9 September 1980, "Derbyshire" hove-to in Typhoon Orchid, some from Okinawa, and was overwhelmed by the tropical storm, killing all aboard. She never issued a mayday distress message. The ship had been following weather routing advice by Ocean Routes, a commercial weather routing company.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: The search for "Derbyshire" began on 15 September 1980 and was called off six days later. When no trace of the vessel was found, it was declared lost. Six weeks after "Derbyshire" sank, one of the vessel's lifeboats was sighted by a Japanese tanker.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: "Derbyshire"s sister ship "Kowloon Bridge" was lost off the coast of Ireland in 1986, following the observation of deck cracking, first discovered after an Atlantic crossing. In the wake of this second disaster, Nautilus International, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and the International Transport Workers' Federation funded a new investigation, sought by relatives of the "Derbyshire" victims.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: In 1994, a deep-water search began. In June 1994, the wreck of "Derbyshire" was found at a depth of , spread over . A subsequent expedition spent over 40 days photographing and examining the debris field, looking for evidence of what sank the ship. Ultimately, it was determined that waves crashing over the front of the ship had earlier sheared off the covers of small ventilation pipes near the bow. Over the next two days, seawater had entered through the exposed pipes into the forward section of the ship, causing the bow to slowly ride lower and lower in the water. Eventually, the bow was made vulnerable to the full force of the rough waves, which caused the massive hatch on the first cargo hold to buckle inward, allowing hundreds of tons of water to enter within seconds. As the ship started to sink, the second, then third hatches also failed, dragging the ship underwater. As the ship sank, the increasing water pressure caused the ship to be twisted and torn apart by implosion/explosion, a property of double-hulled ships in which the compression of the air between the hulls causes a secondary explosive decompression.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: The formal forensic investigation concluded that the ship sank because of structural failure and absolved the crew of any responsibility. Most notably, the report determined the detailed sequence of events that led to the structural failure of the vessel. A third comprehensive analysis was subsequently done by Douglas Faulkner, professor of marine architecture and ocean engineering at the University of Glasgow. His 2001 report linked the loss of the "Derbyshire" with the emerging science on freak waves, concluding that the "Derbyshire" was almost certainly destroyed by a rogue wave.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: Work by sailor and author Craig B. Smith in 2007 confirmed prior forensic work by Faulkner in 1998 and determined that the "Derbyshire" was exposed to a hydrostatic pressure of a "static head" of water of about with a resultant static pressure of . This is in effect of seawater (possibly a "super rogue wave") flowing over the vessel. The deck cargo hatches on the "Derbyshire" were determined to be the key point of failure when the rogue wave washed over the ship. The design of the hatches only allowed for a static pressure of less than of water or , meaning that the typhoon load on the hatches was more than ten times the design load. The forensic structural analysis of the wreck of the "Derbyshire" is now widely regarded as irrefutable.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: Fast-moving waves are now known to "also" exert extremely high dynamic pressure. It is known that plunging or breaking waves can cause short-lived impulse pressure spikes called "Gifle peaks". These can reach pressures of (or more) for milliseconds, which is sufficient pressure to lead to brittle fracture of mild steel. Evidence of failure by this mechanism was also found on the "Derbyshire". Smith has documented scenarios where hydrodynamic pressure of up to or over 500 metric tonnes per square metre could occur.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: On 21 September 1980, the Bibby Line vessel "Cambridgeshire" held a memorial service for "Derbyshire" in the area the vessel was lost.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: The 20th anniversary of the vessel's loss was marked by a memorial service in Liverpool, England, which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, himself a former merchant seaman. Ten years later a memorial service was held in the vessel's home port of Liverpool on the 30th anniversary of "Derbyshire"s loss.


title: MV Derbyshire

text: A permanent monument was dedicated on 15 September 2018 in the garden of the Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool.


title: Ritviz

text: Ritviz Srivastava (born 24 July 1996) is an Indian singer-songwriter, electronic musician and record producer from Pune,Maharashtra, India. He is known for his song "Udd Gaye" featured on A.I.B.'s official YouTube channel after becoming the winner of the 2017 Bacardi House Party Sessions, a talent hunt competition organized by A.I.B. and Nucleya. Ritviz has been selected for the Forbes India 30 Under 30 list of 2021, and has been featured on one of the digital covers of the Grazia India Cool List 2021.


title: Ritviz

text: Ritviz Srivastava was born and brought up in Pune, Maharashtra. He currently resides in Goa. His mother, Mrs Anvita Bharti, is the Head of the Department of Performing Arts at Delhi Public School, Pune, Maharashtra. His father, Mr Pranay Prasoon, is a banker in the department of Foreign Exchange at ICICI Bank in Pune and also plays the tabla. This resulted in an exposure to music from an early age. Ritviz started learning music when he was 8 years old, and went on to be tutored by Uday Bhawalkar in the Dhrupad subgenre of Hindustani Music. He composed his first song at the age of 11. His preferred D.A.W. is Ableton.


title: Ritviz

text: Ritviz has released four EPs, "Yuv", "Ved", "Dev" and "Baaraat"; and his debut album, "Mimmi". His songs "Liggi" and "Udd Gaye" have been especially successful, their music videos having gathered, as of 12 September 2022, 166 million and 97 million (video and audio combined) views on YouTube respectively.


title: Ritviz

text: His associated acts include a remix of Nucleya's track "Lights", from the 2016 album "Raja Baja", a remix of Major Lazer's "Light It Up", of which Ritviz made the Diwali version which features his voice as well as production, and lastly a remix of Lauv's "Modern Loneliness". Ritviz has performed at EDC Las Vegas, Sunburn Festival, the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Zomaland by Zomato and YouTube Fanfest. He opened for Katy Perry and Dua Lipa at the OnePlus Music Festival.


title: Ritviz

text: Ritviz composed the title track of the Amazon Prime Video show Comicstaan, appeared on the soundtrack of the Netflix series Mismatched with "Sun Toh", and his music has been featured in the Marvel series Ms. Marvel.


title: Ritviz

text: In 2018, at the "Redbull Off the Roof" event in Mumbai, DIVINE performed a rap verse on the beat of "Ved" by Ritviz. This version remains unreleased.


title: Ritviz

text: On an Instagram Live in April 2020, Ritviz played a remix of "Chehra" by Hanita Bhambri and "Jeet 2.0". A few days later, on Tanmay Bhat's "Stay Home for India - Day 2" YouTube live-stream, on a Zoom call with Ritviz and Kaneez Surka, Tanmay played two of Ritviz's unreleased songs, "Oas Hai" and "Naina". "Oas Hai" has a feature on the song by the rap duo Seedhe Maut, while the latter was “Naina” ("Panchi"), a track which has a feature from the rapper DIVINE, co-produced by Nucleya. He has teased songs on his Instagram lives with tracks featuring artists Nucleya, Anish Sood and Karan Kanchan. In July 2020, in the promotional video for his virtual event with Nucleya and Anish Sood, "retroFUTURE", Ritviz played an unreleased song called "Dev". His tracks "Sargam", "Parchayi" and "Meet" (with Nucleya) remain unreleased as well.


title: Ritviz

text: On World Music Day 2021, Ritviz announced two new albums consisting of 21 songs, collaborated with Nucleya and Seedhe Maut on Tanmay Bhat's Instagram Live.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Bar (Montenegrin and Serbian: Бар, ; ; or "Antibari") is a coastal town and seaport in southern Montenegro. It is the capital of the Bar Municipality and a center for tourism. According to the 2011 census, the city proper had 13,503 inhabitants, while the total population of Bar Municipality was 42,068.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: "Bar" is a shortened form of "Antivari". The name is thought to be derived from the Latin "Antibarum" or "Antibari", which later in Greek was transformed into "Antivárion / Antivari" due to its pronunciation. A name taken because of its location and which means "in front of Bari". Variations are in Italian, "Antivari / Antibari"; in Albanian, "Tivari" or "Tivar"; in Turkish, "Bar"; in Greek, Θηβάριον, "Thivárion", Αντιβάριον, "Antivárion"; in Latin, "Antibarium"


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Local archaeological findings date to the Neolithic era. It is assumed that Bar was mentioned as the reconstructed Roman castle, "Antipargal", in the 6th century. The name "Antibarium" was quoted for the first time in the 10th century.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: In the 6th and 7th centuries, Slavs occupied the Balkans. Duklja, a Slavic, or Serbian state, was mentioned in the 10th century. Jovan Vladimir (ruler 1000–1016), of Skadarska Krajina is the first ruler of Duklja whose history is known. Stefan Vojislav (ruler 1018–1043), the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljević dynasty, defeated the Byzantines in a battle on a hill near Bar. He made Bar his seat of power. Vojislav then expanded the area under his rule. Mihailo I of Duklja (ruler 1050–1081), Vojislav's son, established the Archdiocese of Antivari. He continued to fight the Byzantines in order to secure the town's independence. This led to a union of states known as the Serbian Grand Principality. From 1101 to 1166, the principality was ruled by the Vukanović dynasty. However, for much of this time, Bar was under Byzantine rule. In 1183, Stefan Nemanja conquered and destroyed Bar which remained under Serbian control until the death of Dušan (1355).


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: From 1443 to 1571, the region was ruled by Venice who called it "Antivari", and it was part of the Albania Veneta. It was a town with its own coat of arms, flag, statute and mint. In 1571, the Ottomans captured Antivari and held the town until 1878. The archdiocese was preserved. With the Ottoman conquest, the Catholic Church in the border area and the Archdiocese of Bar began to collapse, because indigenous people began to migrate as Ottomans to that area brought a new ethnic and religious element. Because of a lack of Catholic priests, entire parishes were converted to Orthodoxy. One of the archbishops during this period was Andrija Zmajević.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: The Ottomans ceded Antivari to Montenegro at the Treaty of Berlin, after losing the Russo-Turkish War. Montenegro's initial main goal in the negotiations was its expansion in Herzegovina and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, but Austro-Hungarian expansion made it unrealistic. The Ottomans, represented by Alexander Karatheodori Pasha, declared that they would cede the port of Spizza to Montenegro but not Bar and other areas because they claimed they were primarily inhabited by Catholics and Muslim Albanians. After negotiations between Foreign Ministers Gyula Andrássy (Austria-Hungary) and Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov (Russia), it was agreed that Bar would be ceded to Montenegro in return for Russian support for Austrian control over Herzegovina. The city-port of Bar itself became militarily neutral, the total number of Montenegrin vessels in the port was placed under limitations and Austria-Hungary acquired the right of patrol of Bar's coastline.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Montenegro renamed the town "Bar", although virtually everyone else, including their neighbours, Italy and Austria-Hungary, continued to name it Antivari. In the new Montenegrin Orthodox state, Bar went through urban depopulation because many of its urban inhabitants which were in fact Muslims either left or were expelled from the town. In the late 1850s, the town had 4,000 inhabitants, 62.5% of which were Muslims. More than half of its population left or was expelled after 1878. The first population register of the town under Montenegrin administration in 1879, counted 1,879 inhabitants. Muslims were 30.9% of the population, 24.6% were Catholics (mostly Albanians) in addition to a mostly Serbian Orthodox population.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian scientist and pioneer in wireless telegraphy, using Nikola Tesla's patented technology, made a radio connection between Antivari (Bar) and Bari on 30 August 1904. In 1908, the first railroad in this part of the Balkans was put into operation there.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: On 8 August 1914 Austria-Hungary responded to Montenegro's declaration of war by sending their protected cruisers SMS "Zenta" and SMS "Szigetvár" accompanied by the destroyer SMS "Uskoke" and torpedo boat "72F" to conduct an unopposed bombardment of the port of Antivari, targeting its wireless station and harbour facilities. They were driven away by coastal batteries and destroyed only a wireless station. The Austrians declared a formal blockade of the Montenegrin coastline on August 10. On August 16, SMS "Zenta" and an accompanying destroyer were ambushed and trapped off Antivari by a very large French fleet (over twelve battleships), and in the subsequent battle of Antivari the "Zenta" was sunk with considerable loss of life. The destroyer escaped. On the 18 September following, the Austro-Hungarian coastal battleship SMS "Budapest" with supporting warships bombarded Antivari, the port and facilities, causing major damage, and on October 17–18 the destroyers SMS "Scharfschutze", SMS "Streiter" and SMS "Ulan" bombarded Antivari's harbour. On November 18 the destroyer SMS "Uskoke" also conducted a brief bombardment. The Austrians made their largest raid to date on the evening and night of 1–2 March 1915 when their destroyers SMS "Csikós", SMS "Streiter", and SMS "Ulan" covered a raid by three torpedo-boats into Antivari harbour. The latter destroyed the main wharf and stocks of food and ammunitions along the waterfront, and captured the Montenegrin royal yacht "Rumija", which was later torpedoed. The destruction of the wharves prevented larger ships from unloading supplies at the port restricting Allied shipments of food and munitions to the Montenegrin army. The Allies realised that with the Austro-Hungarian naval base of Cattaro close by there was little they could do. In 1979, there was an earthquake that devastated Bar. It has since been rebuilt.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: When Montenegro signed an agreement with the Chinese Government to build a motorway from Bar to the Serbian border (part of the Belt and Road initiative) in 2014, large tracts of land around Bar were agreed as collateral in the event of the Montenegro government defaulting on payment of the 1 billion dollar loan. The project was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. Contractual disputes can only be resolved through a Chinese court.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Bar is located on the coastal western border of Montenegro on the shore of the Adriatic Sea. It is approximately from Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.To the east is the largest lake in the Balkans, Lake Skadar. To the west, across the sea, is Italy.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Bar has a borderline humid subtropical ("Cfa") and Mediterranean climate ("Csa") in the Köppen climate classification, since the driest month has of precipitation, preventing it from being classified as solely humid subtropical or Mediterranean. Winters are cool and rainy, with an average high of in January and a low of . Snow is very rare occurrence in Bar, it usually snows once in a few years. The highest recorded snowfall occurred during January 2000, when was measured. Summers are generally warmer, drier and sunnier than the winter months. During summer, the highest temperatures are around and the lowest . Precipitation is low during the summer months, although rainfall can still occur, with July averaging 4.5 days with measurable precipitation. Spring and fall are transitional seasons that feature mild weather that can often be wet and unpredictable. There are, on average, 2523 hours of sunshine per year, ranging from a low of 111.6 hours in December to a high of 350.3 hours in July.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: The coastal part of Bar supports maquis shrubland with oak, holm oak, laurel, myrtle, Spanish broom, oleander, hawthorn, sloe, thorn, butcher's broom and asparagus. To the north and the mountains, there are oak and beech forests.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Citrus fruits including tangerine, orange and lemon grow in the Bar area as do pomegranates, olives, grapevines and figs. Ginkgo biloba grows in the park of King Nikola's palace.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Skadar Lake is rich in bird life including the pelican. Game animals are found in Ostros, Rumija, Lisinj, Sutorman and Sozina and include rabbit, badger, fox, wolf and boar. At the Bar sea shore one finds various kinds of shells, snails, echinodermata, cephalopoda and crayfish.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Bar is the administrative centre of Bar Municipality, which includes the town of Sutomore and other small coastal towns. A census in 2011 recorded 42,048 people in the Bar Municipality. Bar city had 13,503 inhabitants.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: The municipality of Bar is divided into 12 communes ("mjesna zajednica"), consisting of 83 settlements:


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: The main religion in Bar is Orthodox Christianity. However, there are churches from both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions as well as mosques built by Ottomans in the Islamic tradition. Bar is the birthplace of Saint Jovan Vladimir. In 1089, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bar, was founded and included most of Montenegro and Serbia.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Churches and monasteries dating to the era of the Balšić family (14th and 15th centuries) are located on the islands of Lake Skadar including Beška, Moračnik and Starčevo. This area is called the "Holy Land of Montenegro".


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: The economy of Bar relies upon the Port of Bar, the Belgrade–Bar railway and the Sozina tunnel. The Port of Bar is the most recognizable feature of the city. It occupies of seacoast, land area of 800 ha and aquatorium of 200ha. It is capable of reloading 5 million tons of goods annually. In 1976, the Belgrade – Bar railway was opened. It made the Adriatic coast accessible to tourists, and transport to the Port of Bar. The food company, "Primorka" has been operating in Bar for more than 50 years. It produces olive oil and pomegranate juice. There are 95,000 olive trees, about 80,000 citrus trees (lemon, orange, tangerine and grapefruit) in the municipal area. The centre for subtropical cultures, founded in 1937, is the oldest scientific institution in Montenegro. Tourism is also a major part of Bar's economy.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Bar has a ferry line to Bari, Italy which is operated by Montenegro Lines. In season, ferries also go to Ancona, Italy. Bar is well connected with inland Montenegro, as well as with the rest of the Montenegrin coast. The Sozina tunnel, completed in 2006, shortened the road connection with Podgorica to around . Bar is connected to other coastal towns by the Adriatic motorway, which extends from Ulcinj to Herceg Novi, and on to Croatia. Bar is also the final station of the Belgrade–Bar railway, which connects Bar with Podgorica, northern Montenegro and Serbia. Podgorica Airport is about from Bar. There are regular flights to Belgrade, Budapest, Zürich, Frankfurt, Ljubljana, London, Paris, Rome and Vienna. As well the Blueline bus company provides public bus service with the central city of Bar as well as near the city of Sutomoro. There is also inter city bueses as well as international buses such as Flexbus


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Although there are some stony beaches in Bar itself, many tourists choose destinations in other small towns in the Bar municipality, including Sutomore, with its long sandy beach. The natural area around Bar is mostly untouched and is rich in vegetation. The Bar municipality stretches to the southern shore of Skadar lake and encompasses Krajina region. This area is visited for its leisure activities and hiking. Smaller settlements near Bar, such as Dobra Voda, Sutomore and Čanj, are a destination for sunbathing, as they incorporate long sandy beaches.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: The Bar municipality has over of sea coast. There are twenty beaches stretching over . In the north is Čanj, which has a sandy beach. A boat takes tourists from Čanj to the Kraljičina Plaža. It lies below a natural wall of sedimentary rock. Further south is Maljevik Beach. The beach at Sutomore, long, has entertainments, activities and restaurants. Near the medieval monastery complex of Ratac is Crvena Plaža, named after the colour of its fine sand. The beach is surrounded by a pine forest and located about a hundred m from the main road to Bar. Just north of the Bar central business district is the Žukotrlica Beach. It is a gravel beach, surrounded by a pine forest and varied Mediterranean vegetation. The Bar Gradska Plaža is located in front of King Nikola's palace. It is long, part pebble and part sand. south of central Bar is the Veliki Pijesak. It is surrounded by tourist facilities, restaurants and discothèques. On the border of the Bar and Ulcinj municipalities, in the village of Bušat, is the Val Maslina with its nearby olive groves. There are also beaches on the shore of Lake Skadar including the sandy Murići village beach and Pješačac.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: Bar has over fifty sports clubs, and associations including a chess club. The town's major football club is FK Mornar who share the Stadion Topolica with lower league sides FK Hajduk Bar and Stari Bar team FK Sloga Bar. Bar once had two teams in the top tier, with OFK Bar featuring in the 2010–11 season alongside FK Mornar. KK Mornar Bar is the local basketball club.


title: Bar, Montenegro

text: There are numerous sports facilities in the Bar hotels and schools. In the centre of town, most of the facilities are in the Sports and Recreation Centre. Water sports such as diving are common. Sports tourism is promoted because of the proximity to the sea and lake. Bar hosted the 2010 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship and the 2010 Men's u18 European Handball Championship.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader "Dum Dum" Dugan is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is an officer of S.H.I.E.L.D. and is one of the most experienced members of Nick Fury's team, known for his marksmanship with rifles and impressive physique. He is recognized for his trademark bowler hat.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Neal McDonough appeared as the character in the 2011 Marvel Cinematic Universe film "", the 2013 Marvel Studios short film "Agent Carter" (post-credits), in 2014 in the 1st episode of season 2 of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and also in 2015 in the fifth episode of the first season of Marvel's "Agent Carter". McDonough returned as an alternate version of the character in the Disney+ animated series "What If...?" (2021).


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dum Dum Dugan first appeared in "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos" #1 (May 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dum Dum Dugan was originally portrayed as a British citizen in "Sgt Fury" #1, but later retconned to be born in Boston, Massachusetts. During World War II, while working as a circus strongman, Dugan helps Nick Fury and Sam "Happy" Sawyer escape the Nazis during a mission, recounted in issue #34. Dugan joins the British Army, and when Sawyer is charged with creating Fury's "First Attack Squad", formally listed as "Able Company" and nicknamed the "Howling Commandos", Sawyer invites Dugan to transfer into the US Army and become Fury's second-in-command. Dugan's exceptional strength saves the day in several of his adventures in the "Sgt. Fury" comic books. Dugan is an enlisted man with the rank of corporal, and wears the chevrons of his rank on the front top of his trademark bowler hat throughout World War II.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dugan leaves the U.S. Army before the Korean War, but rejoins during the war as Second Lieutenant under the promoted First Lieutenant Fury, once again as his second-in-command of the reformed Howling Commandos. Fury had already received a battlefield promotion to Second Lt. earlier. Dugan remains with Fury when Fury continues his military career into the Vietnam War, as shown in "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos" Annual #3 and 4, and later into espionage work. Dugan's exact rank is not stated, but he is addressed as "Captain" at one point. He remains with Fury when Fury goes into the CIA and later into the original S.H.I.E.L.D.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Different accounts state that Dugan and other members of Fury's Howling Commandos receive the Infinity Formula to explain how they all remain youthful and active despite being all into their 60s and 70s in the modern era. Other stories contradict this artificial maintenance of youth by Dugan as merely dyeing his hair and suffering a heart attack.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dum Dum is placed in charge of a SHIELD unit coined the Godzilla Squad, charged with the task of tracking and stopping the radioactive kaiju. Over the twenty-four issue series, Dugan goes from loathing the creature's destructive tendencies to accepting the beast's existence after Godzilla saves him on numerous occasions. Dugan later recalls a long list of his greatest nightmares, one of which includes Godzilla.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: After suffering his heart attack, Dugan is formally promoted to Fury's permanent second-in-command of S.H.I.E.L.D. as "Deputy Director", though he has acted as such before his formal appointment.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: In "Marvel Graphic Novel" #18: "She-Hulk", Dum Dum Dugan ran S.H.I.E.L.D. during one of Nick Fury's absences. His authority is usurped by the craven, sex-obsessed agent Roger Dooley. She-Hulk and her boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot are illegally captured. Dugan protests Dooley's forcible strip search of She-Hulk in public but is overruled. His authority is regained when Dooley is killed in action.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: During the "Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D." six issue series, Dum Dum Dugan and, later, the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D., deal with another mutiny from within. Dugan was shown to have been shot to death while taking out the trash. In this series, Hydra was revealed to have been a sister organization of S.H.I.E.L.D., with both directly controlled by the mysterious council, who had replaced many of the organization's top brass - including Deputy Director Dugan - with Life Model Decoy android duplicates in order to speed the survival of the fittest selection process that the council had been forcing between the two organizations over the decades. All the officers who were thought to be killed were shown to have been replaced with Life Model Decoy android replacements and were found alive. Dugan retires, along with many of the older officers, at the end of this series. Dugan's retirement does not last long, as he rejoins Fury when the next version of S.H.I.E.L.D. (now known as Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate) is created.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: With Nick Fury's absence at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Dugan is placed second-in-command to Maria Hill. Dugan is put in charge of mutant affairs, and deals with Wolverine. Dugan apparently knows a dire secret to Logan's past.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: In Marvel's "Civil War" crossover, Dum Dum Dugan and several other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are sent to capture his fugitive friend Captain America. The entire group is defeated. He expresses regret to fellow agent Sharon Carter for trying to capture his friend. He also states his concerns about losing faith in S.H.I.E.L.D due to the war and the way the organization is run under Director Maria Hill.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: After the events of "Civil War" and as Tony Stark takes over as director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dugan turns in his letter of resignation, stating that he does not approve of the changes Stark has made, or the way he runs the organization. Dugan's resignation is not accepted however, as he is too vital to S.H.I.E.L.D.; despite his disapproval of Stark's leadership, Stark still trusts Dugan, and Dugan alone, with the command of a weapon that could send an abandoned Manhattan into the Negative Zone, destroying the island and anyone inside during "World War Hulk", stating that Hulk and the Warbound are too dangerous a global threat to leave Manhattan free. Stark trusts that Dugan will know the appropriate time to execute the plan, if at all. Dugan never used the weapon.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dugan later proved his worth and loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D during a confrontation with Maria Hill, where he forced her to confront the fact that she was apparently willing to take actions that would allow innocent people to die while still sticking to 'the book' because the alternative was to disobey orders, informing her that some situations weren't in 'the book'. Inspired by Dugan's words, Hill ended up putting her career on the line by locking down the United Nations under S.H.I.E.L.D. martial law so Stark could escape a tribunal and track down the Mandarin, with Dugan providing Stark with a version of the Silver Centurion armor after his Extremis abilities were deactivated.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: It was later revealed that, shortly after Captain America's death, Dugan was ambushed and stabbed by a Skrull impersonating Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine who then took his place. The Dugan impostor destroys the Peak, S.W.O.R.D.'s Orbital base, in a suicide strike that allows the Skrull armada to invade Earth. After the invasion, Iron Man discovers the Skrull kidnap victims alive and well, including Dum Dum. Dugan is later shown in a support group meeting with the others that had been replaced by Skrulls. Dugan wanted to leave immediately but was convinced to stay.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: After a confrontation that goes badly between Nick Fury's Secret Warriors and The Gorgon, Fury calls up Dum Dum Dugan's "Howling Commandos" PMC for help in Fury's missions, needing "a couple of nasty old bastards with a bad habit of shooting first and asking questions later." Dugan learns that the new S.H.I.E.L.D. organization has been controlled by their old enemies HYDRA right from the start, the same as the older incarnations of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dugan later shows up in Fury's efforts to bring down HYDRA and yet another secretive organization, the Russian Leviathan. Dugan and Jasper Sitwell soon became all that is left of the Howling Commandos PMC after battles with HYDRA and Leviathan and are arrested by the U.N.. At the end of "Secret Warriors", Dugan and Sitwell were released.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dugan is recruited as part of a multi-verse wide effort to stop a supernatural-powered Nazi zombie army. Assisted by Howard the Duck he takes a team of warriors to the affected reality and manages to neutralize the threat at the source.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: A HYDRA group attempts to devastate civilization via super-powered shock-troops and media that inflames people's personal beliefs into irrationality. Dugan leads the effort in destroying this group, often with high explosives. He works closely with Sharon Carter and the Falcon. Dugan is severely wounded in the upper arm but recovers.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: During the "Original Sin" storyline, it is revealed Dum Dum Dugan was killed in 1966 while on a Black Ops mission, and Nick Fury - the only other person who knew about the mission and Dugan's death - had his body preserved and Dugan's mind tied into a transmission device that projected his consciousness into an advanced LMD; Fury claimed that this was done because he did not want to lose his best friend and felt that he needed Dugan to serve as his conscience. When Dugan finds out, he accuses Fury of doing this so that he could feel guilty about things, reasoning that Fury could convince himself that he was still a hero if he felt bad about his actions as the man on the wall. Telling Fury not to bring him back again if they were ever friends, Dugan thinking he was nothing but a mechanical fraud and Fury saying nothing to let Dugan think otherwise, then shoots himself in the head.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Months later, Maria Hill deemed it necessary to bring the LMD of Dugan back and removed the blocks that prevented his resurrection so he could return to Area 13 and help S.T.A.K.E. (short for the Special Threat Assessment for Known Extranormalities).


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: During the "" storyline, Dum Dum Dugan discovered that Dr. Paul Kraye had Maria Hill imprison Orrgo at Pleasant Hill. Upon locating Pleasant Hill, Dum Dum Dugan leads the Howling Commandos to Pleasant Hill where they fight past the inmates. When they confront Kobik, she teleports the Howling Commandos back to S.T.A.K.E. HQ. Once back at S.T.A.K.E. HQ, Dum Dum Dugan learns from Orrgo that Paul Kraye released all the inmates there to cause havoc, causing the Howling Commandos to spring into action.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: During the "Outlawed" storyline, Dum Dum Dugan appears as a member of C.R.A.D.L.E. when a law is passed that forbids superheroes who are below the age of 21. Dum Dum Dugan led some C.R.A.D.L.E. agents to arrest Spider-Man for teen vigilantism. But Spider-Man escapes them, leaving Dugan embarrassed for being defeated. C.R.A.D.L.E. uses Spider-Man's prior history and came too close to him at Brooklyn Visions Academy.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: In "Marvel 1602", the commander of Sir Nicholas Fury's soldiers is named Dougan. In "", he is the defender of the Roanoke Colony.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dugan appears, on the other side of the afterlife, in the climactic battle against Mephisto's forces in "Earth X" Volume 1, issue 'X'. Along with multiple modern superheroes, Dugan fights with many of his old 'Howling Commandos' comrades. He had perished due to being taken by the Hydra entity.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dum Dum Dugan and Nick Fury show up in the issue "Prisoner of War!" from "The Transformers" as guest characters along with Peter Parker and Joe Robertson. They also reference Godzilla's comic in this appearance, though not by name, due to Marvel no longer holding the licence at the time.


title: Dum Dum Dugan

text: Dugan appears in "Ultimate X-Men" several times, once at the end of the "Blockbuster" storyline, then again, during "New Mutants", and one more time as a hologram at the beginning of the "Magnetic North" story arc. Here, Dugan is scarred and aging but physically fit, and is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director of Mutant Operations. He has a mysterious connection to Wolverine, even remembering Logan's real name while Wolverine himself couldn't recall it. Also of note is that this version of Dugan has never been seen with the mainstream version's trademark derby hat. In the "Ultimate Origins" five-parter it is shown that he was involved with Project: Rebirth, the project that made Captain America, appearing as an already grown man in 1943, essentially replacing Chester Phillips in Mainstream continuity. Thanks to a runaway mutant, Dugan and Nick Fury led a strike team at the Weapon X facility, but not before killing Malcolm Colcord on the true origins behind mutants, and rescuing T'Challa Udaku.


title: Mossi people

text: The Mossi are a Gur ethnic group native to modern Burkina Faso, primarily the Volta River basin. The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, constituting 52% of the population, or about 11.1 million people. The other 48% of Burkina Faso's population is composed of more than 60 ethnic groups, mainly the Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo and Fulani. The Mossi speak the Mòoré language.


title: Mossi people

text: The Mossi people originated in Burkina Faso, although significant numbers of Mossi live in neighboring countries, including Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Togo. In 2022, the estimated population of Burkina Faso was 20M+, over 11M of which are Mossi. Another 2 million Mossi live in Côte d'Ivoire.


title: Mossi people

text: According to oral tradition, the Mossi come from the marriage of a Dagomba princess, Yennenga, and Mandé hunter.


title: Mossi people

text: Yennenga was a warrior princess, daughter of a Dagbon king, Naa Gbewaa, of present-day northern Ghana. Gbewaa's tomb is located in Pusiga in the Upper East Region of Ghana.The story has it that while exploring her kingdom on horseback, she lost her way and was rescued by Rialé, a solitary Mandé hunter. They got married and gave birth to a son, Ouedraogo, who is recognised as the father of Mossi people.


title: Mossi people

text: Though Mossi records exist, primarily written using the Ajami script, the Mossi people's history has largely been kept by oral tradition. This means it is impossible to assign precise origin dates. Nevertheless, historians assign the beginning of their existence as a state to the 11th century. The Mossi were able to conquer a vast amounts of territory thanks to their mastering of the horse, created a prosperous empire, and kept peace in the region until the Mossi Kingdoms were conquered by the French. The expansion of the Mossi empire was stopped in the 19th century with the initiation of intensive colonisation by the French.


title: Mossi people

text: French rule affected Mossi society and weakened the power of the Mossi emperor, the "Mogho Naaba". Despite colonization, the Mogho Naaba was given some authority over the Mossi during the French colonial period. He is consulted today for crucial decisions, especially those affecting the destiny of society. Two great events have affected the status of the Mogho Naaba during colonization:


title: Mossi people

text: The Mossi and several other peoples played a significant role in France's military during World War II. They constituted part of the corps in the military troops of French West Africa, known in French as the "Tirailleurs Sénégalais".


title: Mossi people

text: The Mossi people have organised their society in an original hierarchic process in which family and state are the key elements. The Mossi people are very heterogeneous. When horsemen invaded from the south they created a political or ruling class, called Nakomse (sing. Nakoambga), and a spiritual class called Tengabisi. All chiefs come from the ruling class. The Tengabisi include Saya (smiths), Nyonyose (farmers), Yarse (weavers and merchants), and others.


title: Mossi people

text: The origins of the Nyonyose are diverse: In the north their ancestors were Dogon and Kurumba, in the southwest their ancestors were Lela, Nuna, Sisala and others, and in the far east they were Gurmantche. These people were united into a new ethnicity called Mossi in about 1500.


title: Mossi people

text: It is a mistake to describe a "Nyonyosé tribe" or the "art of the Nyonyosé" because the Nyonyose do not exist outside Mossi society. All Nyonyosé are Mossi. At the same time, it is a mistake to assume that all segments of Mossi society are culturally identical, for the differences between the Nakomsé and the Tengabisi are striking; only the Tengabisi use masks, and only the Nakomsé use figures in the context of political celebrations. The Nakomse are the political class, and the Tengabisi are the spiritual class.


title: Mossi people

text: The highest position in Mossi society is that of the Mogho Naaba, who is given executive power. The Mogho Naaba's role is to rule the entire population and to protect the kingdom. Today, he lives in Ouagadougou, the historical capital of the Mossi Empire and present capital of Burkina Faso. Though the political dynamic of the country has changed, the "Mogho Naaba" is recognised by his people and has substantial authority.


title: Mossi people

text: Second to the Mogho Naaba come the nobles, "Nakomse" (“people of power”; sing. Nakoambga), who all are from the family of the Mogho Naaba, whether they be brothers, sisters, cousins, or otherwise. All dignitaries come from the Mogho Naaba's family. The Nakomse are often assigned territories in the kingdom as governorships and rule in the name of the Mogho Naaba. As in the past, the Mogho Naaba needs the support of the “ancient ones”, his "Nyon-nyonse" (or "gnon-gnon-sse") subjects to fully exercise his power. The "Nyon-nyonse" are the peoples who lived in Mossi-controlled regions before the Mossi.


title: Mossi people

text: Mossi society is divided vertically into two major segments: the descendants of the horsemen who conquered the peoples on the Mossi plateau are called the "Nakomse", and all Mossi Napa's (kings) come exclusively from the "Nakomse" class. These people use figures as political art to validate their rule over the peoples they conquered. The descendants of the ancient farming peoples who had occupied the land from the beginning of time and who, by right of first occupation, were and are the owners of the land are called the "Tengabisi" (“people of the earth”). These Tengabisi can be further divided into groups of smiths ("Saya"), groups of traders ("Yarse") and, most important, groups of farmers ("Nyonyose"). Generally the smiths and the traders do not use masks, but the "Nyonyose" are the principal makers and users of masks in Mossi society.


title: Mossi people

text: They constitute the larger part of the population and are all subjects of the emperor. These two groups are generally fused but have internal subdivisions, each one having its own ruling family; they perform ceremonies and other important events. Mossi people often identify with groups; hence, at all levels, there is a hierarchy in Mossi society. In everyday life, the family hierarchy is most important, and family is often directly associated with the notion of hierarchy for the Mossi.


title: Mossi people

text: 'Mogonaba' was what Leo Frobenius was told was the appropriate term for the emperor of Mossi at Wagadugu when he visited the country in 1904–6. His is one of the few disinterested reports as he was an anthropologist and not a missionary, representative of a European company, or military. He describes a court much like a European one (he may have an anti-aristocratic bias) with nobles in intrigues over commerce, power and industry. This report alone caused disbelief in Europe as no European source had ever considered Africans to be socially like Europeans. The lack of racism in Frobenius' report and his discovery of an industrious people and what some would describe as a glorious past interested W.E.B. Du Bois in Frobenius' other writings on Africa. Rudolf Blind's translation in English of the "Voice of Africa," published by Hutchinson & Co., produced some racist comments he thought necessary to conform with English sensitivities — otherwise he believed no Englishman would consider the book realistic.


title: Mossi people

text: An important contribution was made in the 1960s by the historian Elliott P. Skinner, who wrote at length about the sophistication of Mossi political systems in "The Mossi of the Upper Volta: The Political Development of a Sudanese People." This was at a time when many African countries were gaining independence, and Skinner strongly made the point that African peoples were very clearly qualified to govern themselves.


title: Mossi people

text: Group identity and values within the Mossi and contrasted against other ethnic groups are tied first and foremost to language.


title: Mossi people

text: The Mossi speak the Mooré language, of the Western Oti-Volta group of languages, northwestern sub-group. It is spoken in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. This language group is part of a larger grouping, Gur languages belonging to the Niger–Congo family. In the language there are a few dialects based mainly on region. For example, there is a dialect spoken in Yatenga (Ouahigouya), another distinct dialect in the northern region, a third in the southeast in Koupela, different from a fourth dialect in the same region called Tenkodogo. Despite these regional differences, the dialects are mutually intelligible.


title: Mossi people

text: According to the explanations of Marie Tapsoba, the former Cultural Counsellor at Burkina Embassy in Senegal and Mossi herself, Mossi culture can be divided into four main values characteristic of the ethnic group.


title: Mossi people

text: Ancestors are believed to have reached a better world from which they can influence life on earth. They can help or punish their descendants depending on their behavior. Ancestors are also the judges that have the power to allow a descendant to enter the "pantheon of the ancestors". If an ancestor chooses to deny entrance, the soul of the disavowed one is condemned to run at random for all eternity. Because of these beliefs, Mossi swear by their ancestors or by the land; when they do so (which only occurs in extreme situations), it is more than symbolic — it is a call to imminent justice.


title: Mossi people

text: Land is related to the ancestors, being a path by which one can access the ancestors. Even today, this notion gives a unique value to land in Mossi thought. Land is considered to be much more than simple dust and has a spiritual dimension to it. A Mossi's life depends on his/her land, and it is essential for the family settlement.


title: Mossi people

text: Family is an essential cultural element of the Mossi, who hold collectivism in high regard. Individualism does not exist in traditional Mossi culture: one's actions and behaviors are always taken to be characteristics of one's family. They must always ask an elder in order to do something. As a result, all are expected to act in their family's name; thus, the family is the smallest entity in the Mossi society. Heritage is patrilineal, passed down from a father to his sons. However, when a man has no sons, women can inherit from their husbands and even from their father.


title: Mossi people

text: Hierarchy is a fundamental concept for the Mossi and pervasive in their culture. The family is organised like a kingdom with its king — the husband and father, his advisor — the wife, and the people — the children. Aunts and uncles play a role by helping in the education and raising of children.


title: Mossi people

text: Ceremonies and celebrations pace the life of Mossi people, with each celebration having its particulars. Through them the community expresses joy or suffering, or simply fulfills duties to the memory of the ancestors.


title: Mossi people

text: The Friday Mogho Naaba court ceremony derives from an event when the Moro Naba's sister fled north to the land of Yadega, the kingdom called Yatenga. As she fled north, she carried all of the amulets of power, or "nam", with her. The Moro Naba had to decide whether to follow her and retrieve his sacred power objects or to remain behind to rule over his people. Three times he left his palace to mount a white horse, and three times he returned to the palace. In the end he did not pursue his sister, and to this day the kings of Yatenga claim that they hold the power of Mossi rule.


title: Mossi people

text: The political segment of Mossi society, the Nakomse (sing. Nakoambga), use art to validate their rule. Bridles, saddles, stirrups and other objects associated with the horse are very important. In addition, Mossi chiefs use carved wooden figures to represent their royal ancestors. These figures are displayed each year at royal festivals called "na possum," when the heads of each household in the community reaffirm their allegiance and loyalty to the chief.


title: Mossi people

text: The "Nyonyose" (the ancient farmers and spiritual segment of Mossi society) use masks in their religious observances and rituals. The "Nakomse" (chief class) do not use masks. Masks in initiations and funerals is typical of all the Voltaic or Gur-speaking peoples, including the Nyonyose, Lela, Winiama, Nouna, Bwaba, and Dogon. Masks appear at burials to observe on behalf of the ancestors that proper procedures are carried out. They appear at funeral or memorial services held at regular intervals over the few years after an elder has died. Masks attend to honor the deceased and to verify that the spirit of the deceased merits admission into the world of ancestors. Without a proper funeral, the spirit remains near the home and causes trouble for his/her descendants.


title: Mossi people

text: Masks are carved of the wood of the "Ceiba pentandra", the faux kapokier. They are carved in three major styles that correspond to the styles of the ancient people who were conquered in 1500 by the invading "Nakomse" and integrated into a new Mossi society:


title: Mossi people

text: Female masks have two pairs of round mirrors for eyes; small masks, representing Yali ("the child") have two vertical horns. All Nyonyose masks are worn with thick costumes made of the fiber of the wild hemp, "Hibiscus cannabinus". In the old days only the northern Nyonyose in Yatenga and Kaya, and the eastern people around Boulsa allowed their masks to be photographed. The people in the southwest forbade photography because it did not conform to the "yaaba soore", the path of the ancestors.


title: Mossi people

text: Mask characters include Balinga, the Fulani woman; "katre", the hyena; "nyaka", the small antelope; Wan pelega, the large antelope, and many others. Masks from all three areas appear at annual public festivals such as International Art & Craft Fair ("Salon international de l’Artisanat de Ouagadougou" or SIAO), Week of the Culture, and the Atypical Nights of Koudougou ("Les Nuits Atypiques de Koudougou"). Each Nyonyose family has its own mask, and they are charged with protecting the masks to this day. Masks are very sacred and are a link to the spirits of ancestors and of nature.


title: G. Callen

text: Grisha "G." Callen (born: Grisha Aleksandrovich Nikolaev) is a fictional character in the show "" portrayed by Chris O'Donnell. He is an NCIS Special Agent in Charge, and the senior agent assigned to the Office of Special Projects. He first appeared in the "NCIS" season six episode "Legend (Part I)".


title: G. Callen

text: Before working at NCIS, Callen previously worked for the CIA, DEA, and FBI. Several episodes across the seasons reference his stint with the Agency. In seasons one and two, it is revealed that while with the CIA, Callen worked alongside recurring "NCIS" character Trent Kort (David Dayan Fisher), and was partnered with Tracy Rosetti (Marisol Nichols). As part of their undercover mission in Uzbekistan, Callen and Tracy "married," using the surname Keller. Following this mission, where Callen accused Tracy of placing the success of the operation above both their professional and personal partnerships, the two 'divorced,' with Callen joking that in the settlement, Tracy received custody of Buddy, their dog. The marriage and subsequent divorce were fake. In season one, Callen is revealed to have worked with the DEA (on a joint operation with the CIA, where he first met Arkady Kolchek) and the FBI.


title: G. Callen

text: Callen once served with his friend Leroy Jethro Gibbs, who now works at the NCIS Headquarters located in the Washington Navy Yard. Callen specializes in deep undercover work. Prior to the series commencing, G. Callen and Sam Hanna had been partnered for two years (as per the season three episode "Partner" where they celebrate their five-year partnership).


title: G. Callen

text: G. Callen grew up in foster care, never knowing who his parents were or even his first name. In the show's first episode "", it is revealed that he is called "G" not because he dislikes his first name, but because he does not actually know what it stands for, as the system never told him. Further insights into his childhood come in season one's "Pushback", where Hetty Lange and operational psychologist Dr. Nate Getz discuss how Callen lived in thirty-seven foster homes from the age of five to the age of eighteen, sometimes moving every few days. The longest he ever stayed in one place was for three months at fourteen, when he lived with the family of a Russian girl named Alina Rostoff (whom he called "little sister"). A flashback in the finale of season one forces Callen to recall he had an older sister who unfortunately died by drowning in a river. She was buried with the name of Hannah Lawson, while the real Hannah lived with the assumed name of her dead foster friend, Amy Callen. It has not yet been revealed why the two siblings were split up and sent to opposite sides of America, although it can be assumed this was on instruction of their father, in order to keep them safe from the Comescu family.


title: G. Callen

text: Callen's childhood was fraught with abuse, which is referenced during various episodes. He readily identifies with characters who share a similar upbringing, understanding why kids join gangs or the military and knows exactly where runaway teens gather in LA. In season one ("Keeping It Real") he recalls that he once watched his foster father beat his foster brother to death. In season four, he shares how moving unexpectedly to a new home that wasn't quite so nice, made him close off his feelings. Callen also reassured a teenager that if you sleep well on the first night, it's a good home (season four, "Purity"). In "Reznikov, N." (season five), Callen tells Kensi and Deeks that when he was ten, his foster father used to beat him with a broom handle. He was moved after a few weeks not because he was abused, but because he decided to smack his foster father over the head with the same weapon. During the season six episode "Rage," an undercover operation in prison sees him encounter a youth whose situation causes him to recall his troubled teenage years. Callen ran away from his last foster family, was arrested for robbing a storage locker and sent to a juvenile detention center, which he described as hell. After three weeks he escaped, stole a car, crashed it and was re-arrested, only to be rescued on the street from the police by Hetty.


title: G. Callen

text: Over the course of the seasons, Callen has discovered more about his identity and flashbacks in the season two finale prompted him to suddenly recall that he spent part of his early childhood on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. He also uncovers repressed memories of witnessing his mother being assassinated in front of him when he was four. Early in season three, Hetty finally tells Callen that she knew his mother, Clara and she was her CIA handler. Callen's maternal line back to his grandfather George Callen is revealed, as well as the Romanian blood feud between the Callens and the Comescus. George Callen was OSS (which later became the CIA) and hunted Romanian war criminals after WWII and killed Comescus. He then married a Romanian girl, they had a daughter and returned to the US. A number of years later, Clara Callen undertook a CIA mission in Romania, unfortunately allowing the Comescus to exact their revenge on George Callen's daughter.


title: G. Callen

text: "Reznikov, N.", the show's 100th episode, was a landmark in Callen's journey of self-discovery. Until then the identity of his father was unknown but the Comescus track down and kidnap a man named Michael Reinhardt, painting a message in blood on the wall of Reinhardt's house, that they have his father. At gunpoint, Reinhardt tells Callen his name is Nikita Reznikov and with his dying breath says to tell him he kept his promise (to keep track of Callen – and presumably his sister). An archive search found Nikita Aleksandr Reznikov was a Russian Major in the KGB, who was arrested in 1974 and sent to the Gulag for helping families escape to the West.


title: G. Callen

text: While his friends address him as "G", Hetty refuses to do so, saying, "It's not a name, it's a letter." She instead addresses him as "Mr. Callen" ("Identity"). Once he discovers his full name, Hetty still calls him "Mr. Callen" rather than Grisha. The rest of the team continue to refer to him as Callen, as does his sister. Only his father calls him Grisha.


title: G. Callen

text: In addition to English, Callen is fluent in at least six other languages: Spanish, Polish, Russian, German (which is claimed to be Austrian, and is usually completely butchered), Italian (with a Northern accent), and French. Callen also claims to speak Czech and Romanian; furthermore, his Russian is arguably good enough to be taken for one, but not the other, Chechen dialect. That fluency allowed Callen to infiltrate a Chechen terrorist cell in the season four episode "The Chosen One" which eerily presaged the Boston Marathon bombing by Chechen immigrants less than three months later. The fake death certificate shown by Hetty to Alexa Comescu in the season-two finale states that his date of birth is March 11, 1970. In the Season 1 episode "Search and Destroy" (S1:E4), Callen is shown easily reading Arabic, with enough fluency to translate on the fly into idiomatic English.


title: G. Callen

text: In "Archangel", Callen states that the first time he fired a gun was at the age of 20. In the same episode, it was revealed that Hetty has beaten him on a race up the NCIS rock wall three times in a row, and Callen refuses to challenge her to a re-match despite goading from Sam Hanna.


title: G. Callen

text: Earlier flashbacks in the season two finale saw Callen suddenly remember that he spent part of his early childhood on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. As an adult, his foster-sister Rostoff was secretly sent to watch Callen and to prevent him from being killed by Russian mobsters. Callen is fluent in Russian due to his former relationship with the Rostoff family. Throughout the first season, it is shown that Callen is homeless, staying temporarily with his various NCIS colleagues and sometimes in the Operations Center itself.


title: G. Callen

text: At the end of "Legend", Callen was almost killed in a drive-by shooting. Callen and the team later realized (in the first-season episode "Pushback") that his shooting was related to a mission Callen took part in against the Russian Mob, as a DEA agent ten years earlier.


title: G. Callen

text: In the first-season finale "", Callen tracks down a woman named Amy Taylor (née Callen) who initially claims to be his older sister, but then admits her real name is actually Hannah Lawson, and that she was friends with the real Amy Callen when they lived in an orphanage together. The real Amy had died at the age of 11 when the two friends sneaked out at night to play in the nearby river, and Amy had been swept away in an accident. When Hannah returned, she slept in Amy's bed, and the authorities there never realized what had happened. When Amy's body was found a month later, she was buried under Hannah's name as the authorities didn't know any better. Callen later goes to visit his sister's grave, and finds flowers and a recent note left "For my Sweet daughter always in my Heart". Also during the episode, Nate Getz discovers that a list of all of Callen's foster homes and orphanages was written by one person, albeit over a number of years, indicating that someone had been keeping an eye on Callen during that time. The same list showed the various orphanages and foster homes where the real and fake Amy, including the last foster home where Amy (aka Hannah) stayed for many years, indicating this person did not know about the switch between Hannah and Amy. In season 3 "Deadline", Callen discovers that Hetty had kept an eye on him during his youth (confirmed in season 6 "Rage"), and also knew his sister died. But in season 5's "Reznikov, N." it is revealed that Hans Schreiber also kept track of Callen's life, as a favor to Callen's father. It has not been confirmed who actually wrote the list of foster homes and orphanages however it is assumed that he wrote the list as Nate Getz analysed the list as having been written with an aging hand, as and when the changes of homes took place.


title: G. Callen

text: In the season two premiere "Human Traffic", Hetty makes arrangements for Callen to purchase a house of his own—the very same house where he lived with Alina Rostoff as a foster child.


title: G. Callen

text: The second season mostly revolves around Callen, who has been stalked by someone he does not know. He sees someone near the grave of his sister, and over the course of the season, runs into people who seem to know more about his past than he does. When Hetty resigns and takes off to Prague, Callen finds out from Director Vance that Hetty has started her own investigation, Operation Comescu, which is all about Callen. Callen and the team then resign too when Vance refuses to fly them to Prague to get Hetty. Arriving in Prague, the team discovers that Hetty has been taken by the Comescus and that the Comescus have been in a decades-long blood feud with the Callens, of which G is the last one. The team tracks their safe house down to a house on the beach, and Callen starts to remember things from his past, as he realizes he has been on this beach before. Inside the house, Hetty fails to convince Alexa Comescu, the matriarch of the Comescu family, that Callen died three weeks ago, showing her a clip of the attempted assassination and a death certificate.


title: G. Callen

text: In the third-season premiere, "", it is revealed that Callen's grandfather was an OSS agent stationed in Romania. In the third-season episode number 4 "Deadline", Hetty Lange reveals to Callen that his grandfather was named George Callen and that he parachuted into Romania during the War, and at the end took part in hunting those guilty of war crimes, he subsequently found and killed several members of the Comescu family. In 1947 he met and married a 'Romanian Girl' (Callen's grandmother, name unknown). George Callen was murdered by the Comescu family. The remainder of Callen's family (his grandmother and her daughter, Callen's mother, Clara) fled to America where years later Clara was recruited by the CIA. She returned to Romania and then a year later vanished for six years. The Comescu family had not forgotten their grudge and came looking for the Callens. One of Callen's most vivid memories of his childhood is of being given a toy soldier by a stranger while he played on the beach. He realizes that the beach is not in California as he had always assumed, but on the Black Sea coast, and that the toy was given to him to distract him while a Comescu assassin killed his mother. It is never explained why the Comescu family let Callen and his sister live, though Alexa Comescu describes it as "a mistake". Callen confronts Alexa, both holding guns on each other, and Alexa claims to know everything about him. Her words persuade him to lower his weapon providing Alexa the opportunity she needs to kill the last Callen. Before she can pull the trigger, Hunter shoots her dead.


title: G. Callen

text: Back in LA, Hunter is the acting Operations Manager until Hetty returns to work after sustaining a gunshot during Operation Comescu. Callen does not trust Hunter and wants to know more about himself and what was on the laptop that she retrieved at the Comescu house. Hunter later tells him that all the contents of the laptop were concerning the family's illegal activities and not about Callen. Hetty later returns when Hunter leaves for another undercover operation in Europe and offers to tell Callen everything starting with the reason she was trying to protect him: she had failed to protect his mother. She then gives him his mother's name: Clara. She also tells him that his mother was a CIA agent and that Hetty had been her handler when Clara had gone back on assignment to Romania. After a year of the mission, Clara vanished for six years and resurfaced with two children, desperate to get out of Romania. Hetty had been sent to meet her on the beach where the Comescus killed her. She also says that she doesn't know how he and his sister came to the U.S. and that she had no idea who his father is but that she was the one responsible for getting him out of the orphanage and into foster homes.


title: G. Callen

text: In the third-season finale, "", Agent Mike Renko and former Operations Manager Lauren Hunter are both murdered at the hands of Marcel Janvier, also known as "The Chameleon". Callen appears to gun down Janvier following a prisoner exchange. The episode ends with Callen being arrested by LAPD and Hetty resigning her position at OSP.


title: G. Callen

text: A series of flashbacks in the season four opening episode "Endgame" reveal that Janvier's death was faked. After Janvier and Callen are traded back to their respective sides in a prisoner exchange, Callen—following his fake suspension—returns to lead the OSP team once again. Janvier returns again at the end of season 4.


title: G. Callen

text: In the season 5 opener, Janvier reminds Callen that he will be seeking his revenge, even if he has to wait many years to exact it, quoting the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.


title: G. Callen

text: In the season five episode "", a man named Michael Reinhardt appears. Reinhardt claims that his true name is Nikita Alexsandr Reznikov and that he is Callen's father. He is kidnapped and killed by one of the surviving members of the Comescu family, Vasile. At the end of the episode, Hetty and Arkady Kolcheck explain to Callen that the real Reznikov was a KGB major who was arrested and sent to a Soviet gulag in 1974, around the time Callen and his sister came to America. Reinhardt (actually named Hans Schreiber) was a former East German who owed Reznikov a favor and repaid it by keeping track of Callen and his sister. The Comescus mistook him for Reznikov, who kept up the ruse to protect Callen. In Reinhardt's house, Deeks discovered an 8 mm film of Callen and Amy playing with Reznikov. Hetty gave it to Callen.


title: G. Callen

text: In "War Cries", Sam, Michelle, and Hetty set Callen up on a blind date with Joelle Taylor, a friend of the Hannas and their daughter's former kindergarten teacher. Both aware of the trick, they nevertheless get on well although Callen immediately makes up a fake career to protect his role. Throughout season five, Joelle is mentioned as Callen's girlfriend.