USS Horne (CG-30)

The USS Horne (CG-30) was a Belknap-class destroyer-leader frigate, originally numbered DLG-30 when laid down at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard on 12 December 1962. She and her eight sister ships were reclassified as guided missile cruisers during the US Navy's Fleet Realignment in 1975. The Horne was launched on 30 October 1964 and commissioned on 15 April 1967, Capt. Stansfield Turner serving her first captain.

Initial Service Record

Horne got underway for the first time on 24 April for her shakedown cruise, which included test firing of all weapons systems. Capt. Turner formally declared the vessel "shipshape and Bristol-fashion" on 7 July 1967, and the Horne pointed her bow toward her first home port of San Diego, California.

The USS Horne was deployed to Vietnam a total of four times, the first of which was in 1968. Belknap-class vessels, including Horne, operated primarily as air/sea search and rescue vessels as well as air traffic controllers; because their communications and radar systems were the most advanced of their time, it became the responsibility of their crews to monitor and control all air traffic over the combat zone at any given moment.

After US involvement in Vietnam came to a close, the Horne went on to carry out the US Navy's diplomatic functions. During a tour of the Pacific in 1978, Horne paid goodwill visits to an average of five ports a month, dropping anchor in some harbors that had not seen the US flag since the end of the Second World War.

Service in the Persian Gulf

The history of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and subsequent events are well known and documented. What is less well known is that when US hostages were finally released from the embassy in Tehran after nearly 450 days in captivity, the USS Horne stood ready offshore, monitoring the airliner that was carrying them home, missiles at the ready should that aircraft come under attack. (Fortunately, this did not happen.)

Nine years later, the Horne returned to the Persian Gulf, resuming the duty she had undertaken in the Gulf of Tonkin over two decades earlier and expanding her aircraft support role to include refueling operations. Near the end of Operation Desert Storm, two other vessels nearby, USS Princeton and Tripoli,struck mines in the waters off Kuwait. Horne used her capabilities to sweep for mines, finding three and destroying a fourth.

"War on Drugs"

In September and October of 1992, the Horner was ordered to the coast of South America in support of DEA counter-narcotics efforts. During this deployment, Horne tracked 12 aircraft suspected of being drug smugglers; her efforts ultimately resulted in the confiscation of over 1,100 kilograms of narcotics and the seizure of two aircraft and nine other vehicles.

Operation Restore Hope

As the Somali government collapsed in 1993, Horne was diverted from a Persian Gulf deployment in order to support UN efforts to provide humanitarian relief. Horne remained off the coast of the war-torn country for a month during Operation Restore Hope, which lasted from December 1992 until May 1993.

Fate

On 27 October 1993, the USS Horne paid her last visit to a foreign port, dropping anchor at Victoria, British Columbia, as she had during her maiden voyage almost exactly a quarter-century earlier.

Horne returned to her home port in San Diego on 6 November. Her last voyage was a "Dependent's Day" Cruise, a pleasure outing for the benefit of crewmen's wives and offspring.

On 4 February 1994, the Horne was decommissioned. She was eventually moved to Suisun Bay and berthed with the "Ghost Fleet" until 2008, when she was towed out to sea and sunk on 29 June of that year in a combat exercise.

Asbestos Risks

Regardless of whether they were acting in times of peace or battle, soldiers and sailors have long known that being in the military brings with it expected risks. What many didn't know about throughout most of the 1900s, however, was a danger unrelated to mortar fire or enemy actions: the possibility of developing a disease caused by asbestos exposure.

Being able to halt the spread of flames onboard an ocean-going vessel is crucial; historical shipboard disasters attest to the hazards of fire at sea. During the time when USS Horne and other ships like her were built, the naturally occurring mineral asbestos was often used on ships because of its ability to withstand flames. The problem with this is that in addition to its fire-blocking abilities, asbestos has also been associated with serious diseases as asbestosis and mesothelioma. Asbestos damages our bodies when the mineral is friable (in other words, easily smashed into small fibers) since it can then enter the body by being inhaled.

During the heat of battle or while struggling to ride out catastrophic storms, the chance of eventually contracting peritoneal mesothelioma was no doubt far from most sailors' minds. But when a navy ship was subject to damage from battle action, by the weather or by accident, it usually exposed asbestos-containing material and enabled it to be exposed to the elements, creating hazards besides the more immediate ones. And even during peaceful times, those who worked on naval vessels like USS Horne still faced at least a certain amount of exposure because practically every compartment of the vessel contained asbestos. Since asbestos was common near ship's pipes and mechanical areas, navy files whose jobs placed them in such places were especially in danger. But it wasn't only shipboard personnel who suffered from asbestos poisoning; people who maintained Horne when it was in dry dock for repairs were also subjected to airborne asbestos.

Because asbestos-related illnesses such as pleural mesothelioma frequently do not appear until many years after the patient was first subjected to asbestos exposure, they can be quite hard to spot. In order to accurately diagnose such diseases, a doctor needs to be aware of a patient's history of exposure to asbestos. If you lived or worked aboard USS Horne for any period of time, you should educate yourself about the signs of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases and talk about your asbestos exposure history with your doctor.

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