STUDENT SHOWCASE

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Pearl Harbor survivor is self-taught scientist

By Andi Petrini
The Alamance News

A Graham resident who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 is publishing a book explaining some of science's mysteries.

Frank Helderman's book, "Dust: A Mechanic's View of Earth," is a compilation of more than 50 years of research and discovery that began while he was a member of the U.S. Army during World War II. It is being published by Dorrance Publishing Company in Pittsburgh and will be available locally mid-August, he says.

Helderman sits in his office next to his home surrounded by books with titles such as "A Brief History of Time," "Microcosm" and the complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. After suffering from a stroke in 2000, his speech and memory aren't as sharp as they used to be, he says. It takes him a few minutes to find the words he needs to explain what he wants to, but listening to him, his intelligence is clear. To remember dates and places, he pulls the World Almanac of World War II off his shelf. Then he says, "Let me begin by starting on this route to find answers to some problems."

Helderman entered the Army in 1937 at the age of 16. He started out in a gun battery before moving up as a mechanic specialist.

His interest in science began as he was being shipped from Guadalcanal to the Admiralty Islands in 1943 during the U.S. Pacific campaign of World War II. He was one of the last men to grab a book supplied by the American Red Cross. The one he picked up was about earthquakes, written by Richard Dixon Oldham. "I found it to be so interesting, I couldn't quit reading," Helderman recalls. He sat on the ship's hatchback, engrossed with the words and drawings, he says.

The book explained seismographic paths that cut through the core of the earth, creating the shock waves that cause earthquakes. His interest in the earth's movements has yet to cease. Since picking up that book in 1943, Helderman says he's read everything he has laid his hands on relating to science, particularly seismology, gravity and the moon.

He finished writing his book about a month before having the stroke.

"All the time I was learning," he says. "What education I have is self-acquired."

Once he was discharged from the Army in July 1945, just two months before the war ended, he applied to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to take courses in engineering. His marriage in November 1945 changed his plans. "I decided I couldn't do both," he says. "I would either go to school or go to work, so I went to work."

He and his wife Marie have two children and two grandchildren, all of whom live in the area.

Helderman's work experience falls into a wide range of categories. He worked in construction and as a salesman. After exploring those careers, he began inventing.

He holds 16 patents to various inventions used in manufacturing. He spent several years working for a manufacturer in Pennsylvania as a corporate inventor.

"It's a big gamble," Helderman says. "Some [inventions] have paid off, some have not and some have been stolen. It happens all the time."

He has always classified himself as a mechanic, he says, even as a little kid. He worked as a mechanic in the Army before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Following the day that will live in infamy, the Army hired civilians to do those types of jobs and Helderman was transferred to the Air Corps, where he worked on planes. When he was discharged, Helderman had reached the rank of staff sergeant. As a mechanic, he says, "I had no authority, but I had good pay."

After moving to Graham in the 1970s, he settled into working for a contractor. A brain tumor forced his retirement just as he reached the age to collect social security.

He's had two brain surgeries and a heart bypass. "I was in pretty good shape, but it took me about a year to recover," Helderman says. Then the stroke came in 2000, impairing him further. After being unable to speak for nearly four months, he is continually regaining much of his speech, although he still has difficulty saying what his brain wants to convey. The man who lived through Pearl Harbor has trouble remembering and explaining what he witnessed.

"It is not as vivid as you think it is," Helderman says, his eyes squinting a little. "I was in a relatively safe place."

He was stationed about three miles away from the concentrated bombing in Pearl Harbor. While other areas of the island were attacked as well, Helderman's location was not.

"I could see and hear the explosions," he recalls. He saw the explosions from the Arizona and a destroyer that was dry-docked, but never the actual ships.

There were some fuses that fell from American guns and exploded nearby, he says. "Some men from the gun crews didn't get to the anti-aircraft guns," he explains. Because of this, some of the fuses were not timed to go off in the air and instead exploded upon impact with the earth. He says he was lucky not to have one fall on him. At this, Helderman stops speaking of his experience. "That's enough," he says. "I guess sometimes no one will ever explain everything."

From Pearl Harbor, his mind returns to science. He recalls a story from when he was 10 years old and living in Eden, N.C. He was with his father and brother one night when they witnessed a meteor shower. He remembers how bright the moonless sky became, and then the deep cherry red remnants that fell to the earth. He says a diagram of the meteors will be included in his book.

A taste of what Helderman included in his book are his theories on gravity and where the moon came from.

He disregards the Big Bang theory that states the universe was created by an astronomical collision. Instead, he agrees with some astronomers' theories that the universe is created by dust. "We are stardust," Joni Mitchell sang at Woodstock in the 1960s. While Helderman was in his 40s during that era, he agrees with her lyrics in his book.

"I read everything I could find about earth's movements," he says.

His fascination with the earth and the sky has lasted well over 50 years. His experiences in the Army, while often hard to describe, make him a treasured hero of World War II.

Helderman's life continues in Graham, with his memories preserved in the far reaches of his mind and his scientific findings preserved on the pages of a "very small book."