USS Heermann DD-532

USS Heermann (DD-532) was a Fletcher-class destroyer laid down on 8 May 1942 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company at their San Francisco shipyard and launched on 5 December of that year. She was commissioned 6 July 1943, Cmdr. Dwight M. Agnew, serving as ship's captain.

World War II

After shakedown training, Heermann joined the 5th Fleet on 21 October 1943 for the assault on the Gilbert Islands. She arrived off Tarawa on 20 November. For the next two days, she covered troop landings with close-in fire support. Once the island was secured, she returned to Pearl Harbor for voyage repairs and training until 23 January 1944.

During the first two weeks of February 1944, Heermann patrolled off Kwajalein Atoll and protected the escort carriers from which air strikes in support of ground operations were launched. Following this operation, she divided her time between escorting troop and supply convoys and patrolling for enemy supply ships.

During the summer of 1944, Heermann was kept busy escorting Navy and Merchant Marine shipping to various ports. In October, she sortied with a fire support group for the liberation of Philippine Islands campaign.

During the Battle of Samar, Heermann engaged Japanese cruiser Chikuma in a duel that ended in the sinking of the latter -- but not before Heermann had sustained serious damage. As Heermann attempted to withdraw, the heavy cruiser IJN Tone came after her but was driven off by the planes from the carriers she had protected.

Heermann underwent temporary repairs locally before sailing for Mare Island Naval Yard, where she was overhauled and refitted. She then returned to the Western Pacific for the end game, which included the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

On 15 August 1945, several hours after Japan's surrender, Heermann was on radar picket station duty 200 miles southeast of Tokyo when a kamikaze suicide plane emerged from a cloud bank and began diving toward the vessel. In one of the final naval actions of World War II, a fast-acting gunnery officer saved the ship by taking the plane down before it could strike.

Heermann entered Tokyo Bay the following day and remained in the area to support the occupation forces until heading home on 7 October. She was mothballed at San Diego the following year.

Korea and the Cold War

Heermann was reactivated on 12 September 1951 and stationed in Newport, Rhode Island. She spent 1952 training in the Atlantic, followed by intensive antisubmarine warfare and fleet exercises in the Caribbean.

Heermann made a circumnavigation of the globe from 3 December 1953 to 17 July 1954.

For the next 18 months, she participated in training exercises along the Atlantic coast. On 1 February 1956, she sailed to join the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean for exercises along the Levantine coast. In April she was invited by Prince Rainier of Monaco to be in port for his wedding to actress Grace Kelly; Heermann's crew furnished a 40-man honor guard for the occasion. From Monaco she joined the 6th Fleet in the Aegean Sea, then sailed for Fall River, Massachusetts, where she arrived on 28 May. Six months later, Heermann returned to the Mediterranean for joint NATO exercises with the Italian Navy.

Fate

Heermann was decommissioned at Boston on 20 December 1957 and assigned to the Boston Group of the U.S. Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

On 14 August 1961, she was transferred to the government of Argentina under the Military Assistance Program. She served in the Argentine Navy under the name Almirante Brown (D-20) until 1982.

Asbestos Risks

On each Navy vessel through both world wars, the mineral asbestos was routinely used for insulating compartments and for fireproofing. Though essentially all areas of a ship such as the Heermann presented at least some asbestos risk, the ship's engines and mechanical sections were usually the workspaces where crewmen or repair personnel were prone to be at risk of exposure to asbestos fibers. Even greater risk of having major asbestos exposure resulted when the warship was hit, in combat or through misfortune, because that frequently exposed asbestos-contaminated compartments to the air or subjected them to flames or water.

The highest level of hazard to human health associated with asbestos happens in situations where strands deteriorate and become easily broken (or "friable"); if tiny asbestos fibers can enter the air, the material may then be breathed in by those close to the asbestos. Repeated asbestos risk is known to be a causative factor associated with pleural mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and other dangerous medical issues.

Seamen with a history of exposure to asbestos should make a point to notify their doctors, because many asbestos-caused diseases are hard to detect. 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.

As is the case with people on the other destroyers of this era, servicemen who served aboard the Heermann were, on top of the inherent dangers associated with combat, in danger of asbestos inhalation, especially because the USS Heermann saw heavy damage in combat and underwent extensive redesigns and patch jobs. Besides this large-scale combat damage and redesign activity, the troops who served on the Heermann were often subject to inhalation of asbestos in the conduct of their routine duties. This was especially the case for maintenance workers such as pipefitters and carpenters who serviced the vessel when the Heermann spent time dry-docked.

Considering the Heermann's record, and in light of our increased understanding of the consequences of prolonged contact with asbestos, it is important that the sailors who at any point in their career lived and labored aboard this ship, and those assigned to other Navy ships, become knowledgeable about the serious hazards raised by past exposure to asbestos.

Sources:

Destroyers Index