USS Colhoun DD-801

The USS Colhoun was a Fletcher-class destroyers built at the Todd-Pacific Shipbuilding Corporation in Seattle, Washington. The vessel was commissioned on 8 July 1944, with Commander G. R. Wilson serving as the ship's captain.

World War II

The Colhoun reported for duty at Pearl Harbor on 10 October 1944. After a few months of training and routine patrols, she proceeded to Iwo Jima, where she served as a transport screen and provided offshore bombardment for the land invasion. She was hit for the first time by an onshore artillery shell on 1 March. Tragically one crewman was killed and 16 additional men were injured.

Her next assignment was completing radar picket duty during the Battle of Okinawa.

At 3:30 in the afternoon of 6 April 1945, the USS Colhoun received a distress call from her sister ship, USS Bush. Arriving at Bush's location, she found her under attack from multiple kamikaze pilots. Colhoun's crew took down three of the attackers before the ship was hit, wrecking the deck and dropping a bomb into the aft engine room. A second aircraft crashed into her starboard hull, carrying a bomb that exploded, tearing a hole below the waterline, poking holes in both boilers, and starting a fire. As the crew attempted to fight off more of the suicide pilots, a third one crashed into her stern, tearing another hole in her hull. The final blow came when a fourth suicide pilot crashed into her bridge.

Thirty-four crewmen died in the attacks, and 21 sustained injuries. A transport took on most of the survivors, while a skeleton crew aboard assisted a tug attempting to tow her to Okinawa. The damage to the vessel was too great and she was scuttled by the USS Cassin Young the following day.

Asbestos Risks

The toxic mineral known as asbestos was commonly used aboard United States Navy vessels for insulating compartments and to aid in fireproofing materials. A vessel's engines and engineering compartments usually were often the areas where those aboard destroyers like the USS Colhoun were most likely to come into contact with asbestos in the air, though practically all areas of a ship contained some level of asbestos.

When a ship was damaged in battle, or through daily operations, a greater risk of asbestos exposure occurred since fibers could break off into the air where anyone nearby could inhale or ingest them into the body. The fibers could then become lodged in organs or body cavities, causing inflammation or infection and, overtime, the development of an asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma.

Veterans and those who worked on the construction or repairs of ships throughout World War I and World War II may have been exposed to asbestos regularly. Understanding symptoms associated with mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure, can aid in early detection which may provide greater treatment options to those diagnosed. For a comprehensive packet about the cancer, please click here and Asbestos.com will mail a copy to the address provided.

Veterans with a history of exposure to asbestos may wish to notify their doctor of their exposure since diagnosis can be difficult. Symptoms of asbestos-related diseases often do not surface until decades after initial exposure to asbestos occurred.

Sources:

Destroyers Index