Navy Attack Transport Ship Personnel With Asbestos Exposure

Attack transport crews had distinct engineering, landing-craft, deck, and support duties. Asbestos contact depends on a specific product and task, not the APA assignment alone.

Learn how to document individual roles, service dates, ship repairs, and evidence for medical or claims review.

Attack Transport Ship Personnel and Individual Duties

Attack transports carried Navy crews, boat crews, and embarked military personnel during amphibious operations. Engineering, deck, communications, medical, supply, and troop duties involved different spaces and different equipment. A hull designation or passenger listing alone cannot identify an asbestos product or exposure.

Start with the named APA, dates aboard, rating or unit, watch station, and work center. Then use ship records to establish any relevant material, its condition, and the activity that could have disturbed it. Naval History’s account of USS Bayfield (APA-33) is a ship-specific operational starting point, not an inventory of asbestos products.

A crew member could move between work centers or help during an overhaul. Capture those changes with dated orders, logs, and witness accounts; do not treat the entire ship’s service as one continuous exposure event.

Machinery and Engineering Personnel

Machinist’s mates and other engineering sailors could operate or service propulsion and auxiliary machinery. Historical research may involve documented insulation, pump gaskets, valve packing, or nearby piping.

Watchstanding near intact equipment differs from stripping lagging or removing a gasket. Record what the sailor personally did and whether another crew handled old material.

Qualifications, engineering logs, repair orders, and shipmate statements can narrow the individual’s work.

A machinery watch may involve operating a pump, monitoring propulsion, and reporting problems without removing insulation. A subsequent repair may involve machinists, insulators, and yard contractors on separate shifts. Ask which task the veteran performed, whether old material was cut or scraped, and who cleaned up. A watch bill can place a sailor in a work area; a completed maintenance order may identify the job. Neither record automatically identifies the composition of the old part.

A dated engineering casualty can identify a pump or steam line that needed work, but the casualty alone does not identify a particular asbestos product. A follow-up work order and parts record may answer that question. If several sailors took different watches, ask which shift involved removal of old material and whether the veteran was present at that moment.

Boat Crews and Landing Craft Support Personnel

Attack transport boat crews prepared, lowered, operated, and recovered landing craft during amphibious operations. Their work on davits, winches, engines, and craft should be traced to an actual piece of equipment and maintenance event. An assignment to boat crew alone does not identify asbestos contact.

Landing craft were separate vessels with their own model, construction, and repair histories. If a sailor changed an engine gasket or another component, identify the craft type, part number, and date. A transport’s propulsion drawings do not establish the material installed on a small craft.

Boat deck hands might also help with cargo handling, stores, or shipboard repairs. Record where the work took place and whether insulation, packing, or another documented material was disturbed. Crew rosters, deck logs, work tickets, and witness accounts can help place a specific person at the event.

Embarked troops and ship’s company had different assignments. A Marine or Army passenger may have occupied a troop compartment without performing a sailor’s machinery duties. Document troop movements and the actual location or task before alleging any exposure aboard the transport.

Separate craft maintenance from repairs to the APA’s hoists, shipboard steam systems, and electrical equipment. Each part requires its own material evidence and a plausible route of contact.

Electrical, Pipe, Hull, and Yard Workers

An electrician may service power equipment, while pipefitters, welders, and shipyard crews perform different stages of a repair. Electrical work or welding fumes alone do not identify asbestos.

A possible exposure scenario requires a separate documented product that was disturbed, handled, or removed nearby. Record compartment and dates.

Distinguish Navy service from later civilian yard employment; a contractor’s work should not be attributed to every sailor in the space.

A welder may work near thermal covering during a shipyard project, while a pipefitter might need an insulator to remove lagging before opening a joint. The fumes from welding are not asbestos evidence; a separate material must be identified. An electrician can work in a room with insulated piping without directly handling it. Record who performed each step and whether the veteran was present during the actual material disturbance, not merely assigned to the ship.

A repair crew can be assembled for a short project outside a sailor’s usual division. If a veteran recalls a temporary task, preserve the account and look for an order, maintenance card, or coworker with firsthand knowledge. This is more reliable than assuming all members of a broad rating performed the same gasket replacement or insulation removal across their entire tour.

Deck, Supply, and Support Roles

Deck, medical, galley, and supply personnel might work in spaces separate from major machinery. Their duties can still include temporary work elsewhere, but an individual account needs a real event.

A heating line or oven part in a support area may be a research lead only when the material and repair are identified. General occupancy is not the same as material removal.

If a room was renovated during service, match the job to the worker’s schedule and location.

A galley worker may remember repair of a heating line near the work area, or a deck sailor may have a temporary cleanup task. Such details warrant investigation but should not be assumed for every rating. Ask for the exact room, date range, material, and who performed the removal. A dated work order and a firsthand witness can answer different parts of that account. Routine occupancy near an intact material is not the same as cutting or scraping it.

If a support space was remodeled during service, the presence of an asbestos-containing product must still be established through a dated plan, survey, or work document. A former galley worker may recall debris, but the material could have several sources. Describe what was seen and who performed the work; do not name asbestos solely from the room’s age or the dust’s color.

Changes in Rating, Ship, and Work Center

A sailor may change divisions or serve on several APAs. Create an assignment timeline for each hull and tour, then add the maintenance events and product changes.

A shipyard availability could involve crew and contractors working at different times. A yard schedule alone does not establish a particular person’s presence.

Keep later civilian employment separate and include it in a complete medical history.

Attack Transport Ship Personnel Evidence
Stage	Question	Record
Assignment	Which APA?	Personnel file
Duty	Which work area?	Evaluation
Material	Which part?	Specification
Repair	Who was present?	Work order

Crew assignments and ship configurations can change together. A veteran may serve aboard one APA before its overhaul and a different one afterward. Keep separate rows for each hull, division, duty, and suspected event. An original construction drawing cannot prove a gasket survived later maintenance. Civilian employment after discharge should be included for a clinician but must not be mislabeled as active Navy service.

A service record may list a transfer before a vessel’s later overhaul. Check the precise departure date rather than attributing subsequent repairs to the sailor. Likewise, a sailor arriving after a major renovation may have worked around different materials than the original builder specified. Maintain separate entries for temporary duty ashore and civilian work after discharge.

VA and Other Evidence

Collect DD-214, ship and hull assignments, qualifications, watch bills, maintenance records, drawings, product specifications, witnesses, and medical documentation. Specify which source identifies the veteran and which identifies material.

VA describes medical, service-occupation, and doctor-statement evidence for asbestos-related disability claims. A rating alone does not guarantee a finding or payment.

Civil or trust options can require supplier and deadline analysis. Seek qualified medical and claims advice.

See Navy Records Documentation For Asbestos Exposure.

A role-based evidence matrix should link the service file to a work center, the technical document to a material, the work order to a disturbance, and a witness to the veteran’s presence. One item rarely proves all four. Ship histories and deck logs can date a vessel’s movements but do not identify every product or person in a compartment. State which part of an account is documented, remembered, or inferred.

When archival documents conflict, check whether they describe different APAs, drawing revisions, or repair phases. A manual printed after a veteran left cannot by itself identify what was removed earlier. A completed job ticket is more specific than a proposed contract scope, but still may not name the worker. Preserve these limits in the evidence table rather than choosing the most favorable interpretation.

If a witness statement is obtained decades later, note the witness’s own ship, rate, and dates. A person who served on another APA may describe ordinary work practices but cannot directly establish the veteran’s location on this hull. Retain unedited original recollections and note any later clarification after looking at plans. Evidence transparency is useful to medical and claims reviewers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Were all APA sailors exposed?

No. Duties and installed materials varied.

Does an engineering rate prove contact?

No. Identify actual maintenance and material.

Did landing-craft deck work imply steam insulation work?

No. Document the individual task.

Could a support sailor be nearby?

Potentially, if timing, location, and material are supported.

Does a yard project prove personal presence?

No. Use orders, work records, and witnesses.

Is VA compensation automatic?

No. VA reviews individual evidence.

Can a witness from another APA prove this sailor’s duties?

They may describe general practices, but individual presence needs ship-specific support.

Summary and Personnel Profile

An attack-transport-ship personnel history should connect a person’s actual duties to a documented material disturbance on the correct hull and date. Preserve unknown facts rather than assigning every role a generic exposure.

Call 800.291.0963 for a no-obligation case review, or submit your case here. For medical decisions, speak with a qualified clinician; for VA claims, consider a VA-accredited representative.

Families collecting information years later should preserve original shipmate statements and not insert a product name learned from a subsequent web search into an earlier recollection. A person can remember visible dust reliably while not knowing its fiber content. Qualified clinicians can evaluate diagnosis with the full occupational history. VA and legal advisers can explain their different evidence and filing requirements for an individual case.

Do not assign a universal exposure ranking to APA rates. Contact depends on product condition, disturbance, work practices, location, and individual participation. A clinician can assess medical questions using the complete history. A VA-accredited representative or qualified lawyer can address the respective benefits or product-based process; neither outcome is guaranteed by a job title.

A concise final profile should name the sailor, hull, duty period, work center, material if known, and specific disturbance. If a source confirms only the rating, label the task unknown. If a witness confirms work but not the fiber type, label the material unknown. Neither gap should be filled by general claims about Navy vessels.

Confirmed Sources

Disclaimer: General information only—not legal or medical advice. This website is not a law firm. Exposure, VA eligibility, liability and deadlines vary by case and jurisdiction. Do not disturb suspected asbestos. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.