Asbestos Exposure Aboard the USS Chikaskia (AO-54)
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She was named for a river that winds through the red-clay prairies of south-central Kansas before crossing into Oklahoma on its way to the Arkansas. The Chikaskia River is a quiet, unhurried stream, but the ship that bore its name was anything but quiet or unhurried. The USS Chikaskia (AO-54) was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler that spent more than twenty-five years at sea fueling the combat ships of the United States Navy through three wars and the long decades of Cold War vigilance that followed. She earned six battle stars for World War II and a seventh for the Korean War. She fueled 480 ships at sea during the war years alone, steaming more than 86,000 miles in the process.
A Ship Built for the Most Dangerous Work in the Fleet
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Fleet oilers occupied a unique and uniquely hazardous position in the Navy’s order of battle. Unlike combatant ships, which fought and then withdrew, oilers steamed directly into the operational area to meet the ships that needed fuel, often in the midst of ongoing combat operations. Replenishment at sea was dangerous work, requiring oiler crews to come alongside warships moving at speed in all weather conditions, pass fuel hoses across the gap, and maintain station for the duration of the transfer. For the USS Chikaskia, that work took her to Kwajalein and Truk, to the Palau Islands, to the Philippines, to Okinawa, and ultimately into Tokyo Bay in the final days of the Pacific War.
Chikaskia was launched in 1942 by Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard in Sparrows Point, Maryland, under a Maritime Commission contract. She was acquired by the Navy and commissioned in 1943, under the command of Commander L. J. Hasse, USNR. She displaced 7,236 long tons light and 25,440 long tons at full load, stretched 553 feet from bow to stern, and carried a complement of 314 officers and enlisted men. Her propulsion plant consisted of geared turbines on twin screws, producing 30,400 shaft horsepower and a top speed of 18 knots. Her cargo capacity was 146,000 barrels of petroleum products.
That propulsion plant, and the systems that supported it, were built in the same manner as every major naval vessel of her era: saturated with asbestos-containing materials from the first day of her commission. Fleet oilers and tankers like the Chikaskia were among the most heavily contaminated vessels in the Navy’s fleet. These ships contained thousands of pounds of dangerous asbestos-containing materials that had been supplied by manufacturers and suppliers who knew the health risks they posed.
A Record of Extraordinary Service
In late 1943, Chikaskia sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, loaded oil at Aruba, and arrived at Pearl Harbor in January of 1944. She joined Task Force 58 at Majuro and provided logistic support for the fast carrier force’s strikes during the occupation of Kwajalein and on Truk.
In 1944, Chikaskia operated out of Espiritu Santo, Purvis Bay, and Manus, bringing vital at-sea replenishment of fuel to the fast carrier task forces and other ships. In that same year, in a striking demonstration of her capabilities, she simultaneously refueled USS Iowa and USS New Jersey.
After continuous service through the 1940s, she returned to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet in1953 fueling ships operating in the Korean War. She continued to operate in the Pacific until June of 1955.
After a series of decommissionings and recommissionings through the late 1950s, Chikaskia was recommissioned in December of 1960 to refuel support ships during the Bay of Pigs operation before she was finally decommissioned in December 1969. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1976 and sold for scrap in 1982.
Throughout all of that operational history, across three wars and more than twenty-five years of continuous service, the Chikaskia’s engineering crew stood continuous watches in boiler rooms and engine rooms that were packed with asbestos-containing materials. The extraordinary mileage the ship accumulated, and the extraordinary volume of fuel she transferred, meant that her propulsion plant was under near-constant stress, generating near-constant demand for the maintenance of asbestos-laden equipment.
An Oiler’s Particular Asbestos Hazard
Fleet oilers like the USS Chikaskia carried a distinct asbestos exposure profile that set them apart from even other heavily contaminated Navy vessels. The core mission of an oiler, handling and transferring petroleum products, required extensive pumping infrastructure throughout the ship, in addition to the standard propulsion plant found on any steam-powered naval vessel. Every pump in that infrastructure was insulated and sealed with asbestos-containing materials.
Equipment, including boilers, pumps, valves, tanks, condensers, and turbines, required around-the-clock oversight, and regular maintenance. Asbestos exposure aboard these vessels was extensive. In the engineering spaces, sailors were required to understand, operate, and repair numerous pumps. Generally, each engine room contained one primary pump and one backup pump, in case of a pump malfunction. A variety of pumps, including overboard brine pumps, condensate pumps, fuel pumps, water pumps, condenser pumps, fire pumps and bilge pumps, carried out different operations, but all contained numerous pieces of asbestos materials.
Various asbestos components, including gaskets, packing material, block, and rope were regularly installed and replaced during cruises, to ensure proper performance while at sea.
Navy fleet oilers of this era are documented to have included boiler block insulation, refractory brick, and gun-blocks around the main boilers; asbestos gaskets and braided packing in valves, flanges, pumps, condensers, heat exchangers, and turbine glands; insulation jackets and removable lagging on main propulsion turbines, reduction gears, ship-service turbine generators, and forced-draft blowers; and asbestos rope, wick, and tape in gland-seal applications throughout the engineering plant.
Beyond the asbestos-filled fire rooms, pump rooms, and engine compartments, where asbestos insulation covered piping and electrical systems, the other areas of the ship that contained the most asbestos were those that generated heat, including the turbines, the engine rooms, and the boiler rooms.
A Norwegian Study and the Particular Danger of Tanker Service
The asbestos hazard aboard fleet oilers like the Chikaskia was not merely a theoretical concern rooted in the general history of naval asbestos use. When a comprehensive Norwegian study followed 1,687 captains and mates from 1970 to 1987, it revealed dramatically increased malignancy rates among tanker crew members, with those working on oil tankers showing an odds ratio of 6.47 for developing lung cancer. The study found that mates faced particularly high risks compared to captains, likely due to their greater exposure to hazardous materials during routine operations.
That finding, while drawn from a Norwegian maritime context, reflects a broader reality confirmed across the Navy oiler experience: the combination of intensive propulsion plant maintenance demands, extensive pumping infrastructure saturated with asbestos-containing components, and the added fireproofing burden driven by the presence of petroleum cargo created conditions of exceptional asbestos concentration aboard vessels like the Chikaskia.
Who Was at Risk
The Chikaskia’s crew of 314 men was drawn from across the Navy’s rating structure, and the asbestos hazard touched them all. The exposure was worst in the engineering spaces where the engineering crew worked, but asbestos lined the whole ship, so everyone on board was exposed.
Navy occupations with the highest asbestos exposure risk included boiler technicians, machinist’s mates, pipefitters, hull maintenance technicians, electrician’s mates, and damage controlmen. Maintaining or repairing this equipment released asbestos dust that crew members easily inhaled.
For the Chikaskia, those duties were amplified by the ship’s extraordinary operational tempo. A vessel that steamed more than 86,000 miles during the war years alone, that simultaneously refueled two battleships in September 1944, that endured a typhoon while maintaining her position as a fueling platform for the 3rd Fleet, was a ship whose engineering plant was under near-continuous demand. The personnel that kept that plant running, through typhoons and combat operations and decades of Cold War deployments, accumulated asbestos exposure with every watch they stood.
The danger extended beyond the engineering crew to every man who lived aboard the ship. A quartermaster who spent his career navigating the Chikaskia across the Pacific, or a boatswain’s mate who handled the fuel transfer rigs during replenishment operations, lived in the same asbestos-contaminated environment as the machinist’s mate who spent his watch in the engine room.
The fibers that accumulated in the ship’s compartments during each deployment were not contained to the ship. They clung to work clothing, settled in hair, and adhered to skin, traveling home with every man who left the ship on liberty and with every veteran who separated from the Navy. Spouses who laundered work clothes, children who greeted a returning sailor, and family members who shared a household with someone who had served aboard the Chikaskia were exposed to secondary contamination without any knowledge of what was arriving with him.
The Companies That Knew and Did Not Warn
The manufacturers of the asbestos-containing products installed aboard the USS Chikaskia knew what those products could do to the people who worked with them. These companies prioritized profits over the safety of those using their products; they concealed the dangers from the Navy as well as all others exposed to their materials.
The Disease That Takes Decades to Arrive
Mesothelioma is an aggressive and incurable cancer of the tissue lining surrounding the lungs, abdomen, or heart. It is caused by asbestos exposure and has a poor prognosis. It can take between 10 to 60 years after asbestos exposure to develop. A boiler tender who maintained the Chikaskia’s engineering plant during her Korean War deployments in 1953 may have spent the next fifty years in apparent good health before a diagnosis arrived to connect the present to those long-ago watches below deck.
VA Benefits and Legal Compensation
Veterans who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related illness following service aboard the USS Chikaskia (AO-54) avail themselves of two primary avenues for recovering compensation. The first is VA benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which can provide disability compensation, healthcare, and other support to veterans whose illness is service-connected. The second is legal compensation through civil litigation and trust fund claims against the manufacturers of the specific asbestos-containing products installed aboard the ship.
You cannot sue the Navy or the U.S. government for exposure to asbestos on Navy ships, but you may be able to sue asbestos product manufacturers if you developed mesothelioma after working on a Navy ship. Asbestos companies that filed for bankruptcy were ordered to put aside money in trust funds for future mesothelioma patients. Today, there is an estimated $30 billion in these trusts. An experienced asbestos attorney who specializes in Navy veteran claims can review service records, identify the specific manufacturers whose products were present aboard the Chikaskia, and pursue compensation through personal injury litigation or asbestos trust fund claims, at no upfront cost.
Statutes of limitations apply to asbestos claims, so acting promptly upon diagnosis is always the most critical step.
