USS George E. Badger DD-196

The Clemson-class destroyer USS George E. Badger (DD-196) was built in Newport News, Virginia, between September 1918 and March 1920 and commissioned in July of that year under command of Lt. Cmdr. Albert G. Berry, Jr. During her quarter-century of service, she would undergo four conversions.

Prohibition

Badger served in the Caribbean for only two years before she was mothballed and berthed in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in August 1922.

By 1930, the ill-conceived Volstead Act was in its 11th year. On 1 October, the U.S. Navy transferred the Badger to the Treasury Department, under which the Coast Guard used her to intercept rumrunners. With a new executive in the White House in 1933, the Volstead Act was finally repealed, ending Prohibition and rendering an entire class of criminals unemployed. Badger was returned to the Navy and converted into a transport and towing vessel, redesignated AVP-16. On the eve of U.S. entry into the Second World War, she was again converted into a seaplane tender, redesignated AVD-3, and assigned to the North Atlantic until May of 1942.

Combat Duty

Sailing from Charleston, South Carolina, Badger spent the remainder of 1942 escorting convoys between Brazil and the United States. In January 1943, she went into the Norfolk Navy Yard for refits in preparation for trans-Atlantic convoy duty. Stationed at the Argentia Naval Station off the coast of Newfoundland, she screened North Atlantic convoys to the British Isles until checking back into Norfolk for another overhaul in June, then set out for North Africa on 13 July 1943. She made three trips to North Africa between July and December 1943, engaging and participating in the sinking of three German U-boats during that time.

On 19 May 1944, Badger went to the Charleston Navy Yard for yet another conversion, this time into a high-speed transport. Redesignated APD-33, she set sail for the South Pacific in late July. Her service in the Pacific Theater culminated in patrols off the coast of Iwo Jima, escort duty among the islands that had been secured, and convoy escort between Okinawa and Saipan from April through June of 1945.

Badger was ordered home in late June. She returned to San Francisco, where she was reconverted into a destroyer and again reclassified as DD-196 on 20 July. She was decommissioned in October and sold for scrap in June 1946.

Asbestos Risks

Until the '60s, each U.S. Navy ship routinely employed the mineral asbestos for compartment insulation and as fire control. Each ship's engines and mechanical compartments generally were where a sailor or repair personnel were apt to be at risk of exposure to fibers of asbestos; nevertheless, essentially all compartments of a ship such as the USS George E. Badger presented a real danger of asbestos contamination. If a vessel was damaged, whether in battle, by catastrophic storms, or accidentally, it often exposed asbestos-contaminated compartments to the open air or subjected them to fire or water. This resulted in additional danger of having harmful levels of asbestos exposure.

The greatest risk of exposure when dealing with asbestos is experienced where strands become easily broken, since if the asbestos fibers are released into the surrounding air, the material may then be inhaled by workers nearby. Even modest levels of asbestos proximity is strongly associated with peritoneal mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and other life-threatening health problems.

Since most asbestos-related disorders are puzzling to detect, those sailors who worked around this substance should immediately inform their medical professionals about this history. To learn more about the diagnostic process, available treatment options and financial assistance to help pay for medical costs, please fill out this form to receive a comprehensive packet in the mail.

On top of inherent dangers of combat, sailors who lived and worked aboard the Badger were, as were sailors on the other craft of her class, frequently endangered by asbestos inhalation. Although the Badger endured minimal damage in battle, with her long life and multiple conversions she underwent extensive renovations and repairs, which presented asbestos exposure risks to the repair personnel such as pipefitters and carpenters who worked on the vessel when the Badger was in port. In addition, sailors who lived and worked aboard the ship were also endangered by asbestos in the ordinary course of their loyal service.

Based on what we now know about the result of asbestos inhalation, the troops who served or worked aboard this naval vessel at any point in their career, as well as those who served on her sister ships, must become well-informed about the dangers posed by past exposure to this deadly mineral.

Sources:

Destroyers Index