USS General LeRoy Eltinge (AP-154)

The USS General LeRoy Eltinge (AP-154) was one of the Navy’s General G. O. Squier-class large transport ships, in service from 1945 until 1967.

The USS General LeRoy Eltinge was built in 1944 by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company of Richmond, California, and commissioned into Navy service on February 21st, 1945. Shortly thereafter, the General LeRoy Eltinge sailed into the Pacific for a brief shakedown cruise, after which she was assigned to the Navy’s Pacific Fleet. During the waning months of World War II, the General LeRoy Eltinge operated in the western Pacific, delivering troops and military personnel to American bases scattered throughotu the region. Following the cessation of hostilities in the Pacific, the USS General LeRoy Eltinge was tasked with supporting Operation Magic Carpet in the Atlantic, the mass withdrawal of war-weary veterans from their stations abroad. The General LeRoy Eltinge then performed similar duties in the Pacific, bringing more than 10,000 veterans home during her Magic Carpet service. In May of 1946 the USS General LeRoy Eltinge was ordered to report to New York, where she was decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Army.

Upon taking control of the General LeRoy Eltinge, the U.S. Army began the process of converting her for Army service. The General LeRoy Eltinge’s conversion lasted for several weeks, during which time she was retrofitted for peacetime operations. As part of the conversion process, crews removed or replaced much of the General LeRoy Eltinge’s onboard equipment, and in doing so released significant amounts of asbestos that had previously been trapped within the transport’s hull. The pervasive asbestos fibers remained suspended inside the transport, and when Army crews reported to take control of her they likely suffered from significant asbestos inhalation. Following her conversion, the USS General LeRoy Eltinge served with the U.S. Army for four years, until the Navy finally reacquired her in 1950.

The Navy reacquired the General LeRoy Eltinge just after the outbreak of the Korean War, and the transport was immediately pressed into service supporting American operations on the Korean Peninsula. The ship made dozens of trans-Pacific crossings, bringing fresh troops to Korea and wounded and weary troops back to the United States. In recognition of her role during the Korean War, the U.S. Navy awarded the USS General LeRoy Eltinge with a Korean Service Medal, as well as one United Nations Service Medal.

Following the resolution of the Korean War, the USS General LeRoy Eltinge resumed a peacetime deployment schedule, operating largely out of New York. During her time in the Atlantic, the General LeRoy Eltinge supported a number of UN peacekeeping operations, including campaigns in the Belgian Congo and Turkey. In between voyages the transport occasionally entered port for routine maintenance. These overhaul periods contributed greatly to the transport’s longevity and exemplary service record, but they frequently resulted in the release of asbestos from within the vessel’s hull. It is likely that hundreds of Navy sailors aboard the General LeRoy Eltinge suffered from asbestos exposure during their deployments immediately after these overhauls.

In 1966 as the war in Vietnam escalated wildly, the General LeRoy Eltinge was assigned to support American troops in Southeast Asia. She made one voyage to Vietnam, delivering a fresh load of troops to the country, before returning to San Francisco, where she was decommissioned in January of 1967. In 1969 the General LeRoy Eltinge was struck from the Naval Register and converted for commercial use.

For as long as there have been wars, men and women in armies and navies have accepted that their lives will contain many dangers. But on top of the obvious hazards that accompany serving in the military, a hidden one faced those who served in the 1900s: asbestos contact.

Being able to control the spread of flames onboard a navy ship is critical; historical shipboard disasters attest to the hazards of fire at sea. As a result, it was typical and sometimes legally mandated for insulators such as the mineral asbestos to be used during the period when vessels like USS General LeRoy Eltinge were constructed. Asbestos has long been known for its ability to insulate, but it has also been shown to be the primary cause of such debilitating conditions including "miners lung" and pleural mesothelioma. Asbestos harms the body when the mineral is friable (in other words, easily crushed into microscopic shards) since it is then able to enter the body by being inhaled or swallowed.

During the heat of battle or while struggling to survive a typhoon, the likelihood of someday being diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma was no doubt far from most sailors' thoughts. Asbestos exposure was actually an additional hazard when a naval vessel suffered battle damage, however, because such circumstances usually exposed asbestos-containing materials to air and water. And even when not faced with crisis conditions, those who served on naval vessels like USS General LeRoy Eltinge still faced at least a certain amount of exposure since virtually all areas of the ship contained asbestos. With asbestos being prevalent around ship's pipes and mechanical areas, service personnel who spent time in such areas were particularly at risk. People who worked on USS General LeRoy Eltinge or other ships like her whenever she was in dry dock for overhaul were subject to the possibility of contact with asbestos as well.

Many asbestos-related conditions can take many years to develop. In order to accurately diagnose such diseases, a physician must know about a patient's history of exposure to asbestos. If you are a veteran who served on USS General LeRoy Eltinge for any period of time, you should educate yourself about the symptoms of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases and discuss your asbestos exposure history with your physician.

Sources:

Auxiliary Vessels Index