USS General W. M. Black (AP-135)

The USS General W. M. Black (AP-135) was a General G. O. Squier-class troop transport in service with the Navy from World War II until 1955.

The USS General W. M. Black was built in 1943 by the Kaiser Company, Incorporated, of Richmond, California, and commissioned into Navy service on February 24th, 1944. Following her commissioning ceremony, the General W. M. Black deployed into the Pacific for a brief shakedown cruise before she began regular deployments with the Navy. In her first months in service, the General W. M. Black traversed the Pacific, bringing fresh troops to American bases in New Guinea and Pearl Harbor. After several months in the Pacific, the transport was reassigned to the Atlantic, where she embarked on more than a dozen trans-Atlantic voyages. The USS General W. M. Black spent nearly a year plying the waters of the Atlantic, ferrying tens of thousands of troops and personnel between Europe and the U.S. When World War II came to an end in the summer of 1945, the USS General W. M. Black was assigned to Operation Magic Carpet and tasked with bringing troops home from their far-flung deployment areas. She continued in this role until early 1946, when she was decommissioned from the Navy and transferred to the Army for peacetime service.

Once the U.S. Army assumed custody of the General W. M. Black they rechristened her the USAT General W. M. Black and put her into port for a conversion to Army Transport specifications. During this conversion, work crews replaced some of her AA gun mounts and performed numerous other equipment upgrades, resulting in the release of large quantities of asbestos fibers that had previously been trapped within the General W. M. Black’s hull. The work crews assigned to the transport undoubtedly suffered from asbestos exposure, and the General W. M. Black’s first Army crew also likely experienced varying degrees of asbestos inhalation. In 1950, after four years of service with the Army, the General W. M. Black was returned to the U.S. Navy, which again redesignated her, this time as the USNS General W. M. Black (T-AP-135).

Shortly after reacquiring the General W. M. Black, the Navy rebased her to San Francisco, where she began a series of deployments in support of American operations in the Korean War. The General W. M. Black spent three years sailing between the west coast and Korea, delivering over 65,000 troops and participating in six Korean campaigns. In recognition of her service during the Korean War, the U.S. Navy awarded the General W. M. Black and her crew six battle stars. Soon after returning from her last deployment in Korea, the USNS General W. M. Black was decommissioned and placed into the Pacific Reserve Fleet. She was decommissioned on August 28th, 1955, and sold into commercial service in May of 1967.

Men and women who protected our country in the armed forces have always understood that their enlistments are accompanied by certain dangers, regardless of whether or not they experience battle action. However, what most of our servicemen and servicewomen in the majority of the 1900s, especially those in the navy, didn't know was that asbestos exposure could prove to be nearly as life-threatening as enemy actions.

As fire onboard ships can be tremendously deadly, fireproofing is a critical factor in the design and construction of ships. Therefore, it was common (and in many cases required by law) for fireproofing materials such as asbestos to be utilized at the time that vessels like USS General W. M. Black were constructed. Unfortunately, what wasn't always known or was sometimes glossed over was that inhalation of asbestos can cause debilitating diseases such as "miners lung" and pleural mesothelioma. The harm done by asbestos happens when very small fibers are inhaled or ingested so that they can invade the respiratory system and occasionally the stomach, causing scar tissue in the case of pleural plaques and damage at the cellular level in the case of mesothelioma.

During an enemy attack or while struggling to ride out catastrophic storms, the possibility of eventually contracting pericardial mesothelioma was no doubt the last thing on most people's minds. But exposure to asbestos was a serious additional hazard of such circumstance, as widespread damage to a ship frequently also damaged asbestos-containing parts so that particles could be inhaled by people nearby. And even during peaceful times, those who toiled on ships like USS General W. M. Black still faced at least a certain level of exposure because practically every compartment of the ship contained parts made with asbestos. Furthermore, a navy file working in enclosed areas containing asbestos, such as USS General W. M. Black’s boilers or engine room, was particularly at risk. But it wasn't just shipboard sailors who suffered from asbestos poisoning; people who maintained the vessel when it was in dry dock for repairs were also exposed to airborne asbestos.

Mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases can be tricky to distinguish from other illnesses, because they share symptoms with such conditions. However, being aware of a patient's history of asbestos exposure can aid a healthcare professional in being able to make an accurate diagnosis. Naval veterans who worked on or lived aboard USS General W. M. Black, therefore, should talk about their service history with their healthcare providers.

Sources:

Auxiliary Vessels Index