USS Hickox DD-673

USS Hickox (DD-673) was a Fletcher-class destroyer named in honor of Lt. Cmdr. Ralph Hickox, who was lost at sea when his vessel ran aground in a storm off the coast of Newfoundland in 1942.

Hickox was built by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey and launched 4 July 1943. She was commissioned on 10 September, Cmdr. William M. Sweetser serving as the vessel captain.

World War II Service

After a brief shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Hickox sailed from the Norfolk, Virginia, NOB on 21 November, reporting to Pearl Harbor on 12 December. Joining the Fast Carrier Task Force as part of the destroyer screen (the squadron of destroyers patrolling the perimeter of the flotilla to protect larger vessels from submarines, torpedo boats and enemy aircraft), Hickox sailed on 16 January 1944 to assist in the "neutralization" of Japanese airfields in the Marshall Islands.

Over the next few months she protected carriers during aerial strikes on Truk, the Marshalls, and New Guinea. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 and 20 July, Hickox's crew accounted for at least five of the hundreds of Japanese aircraft destroyed during what is remembered in U.S. Naval history as "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."

During the next seven weeks, Hickox accompanied the Fast Carrier Task Force as the carriers launched preliminary air strikes against enemy positions on Iwo Jima and Guam. On 11 September Hickox joined Admiral William F. Halsey's Third Fleet in Philippine waters for the initial operations in the campaign to retake the Philippines.

Surviving the worst of combat in the Philippines campaign, Hickox was nearly taken down by the sea itself during "Halsey's Typhoon" of 17-18 December 1944 when she lost rudder control. She survived the storm, however, to rejoin the Fast Carrier Task Force in February for the first raids against Tokyo since the Doolittle raid of April 1942.

Throughout the campaigns against Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Hickox continued to lead her charmed life, escaping damage and injury through the heaviest combat situations. On 29 May, Hickox finally headed home for overdue repairs and maintenance, arriving in San Francisco Bay on 6 July. Her machinery was so worn that repairs were still being carried out when the war ended on 2 September with the signing of the armistice in Tokyo Bay. Hickox was decommissioned at San Diego on 10 December 1946.

Korea and the Cold War

Hickox was pulled out of mothballs on 19 May 1951 as the war in Korea escalated. She was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, arriving on 13 October to join the Atlantic Fleet. After tactical exercises along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean, Hickox and the other destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 20 sailed on 6 September 1952 for a circumnavigation of the globe. Hickox spent two months on duty off the Korean coast screening carriers, furnishing gunfire support for land-based operations, and patrolling along the shore. She and her squadron returned to port in April 1953 after nearly eight months at sea.

After four more years of operations in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Hickox was again decommissioned 20 December 1957.

To Korea Again

Hickox was transferred to South Korea in November 1968, where she served as ROKS Pusan for another 20 years. Ultimately, the old and worn vessel was retired and broken up for scrap in 1989 after 46 years in the water.

Asbestos Risks

In the first seven decades of the 20th century, each U.S. Navy destroyer routinely utilized the substance known as asbestos for insulating pipes and as fireproofing. A vessel's boiler room and engineering compartments were the sections where a crewman or a technician was likely to be endangered by fibers of asbestos, but nearly every part of a ship like the USS Hickox posed a significant level of asbestos risk. Whenever a ship was damaged, whether in combat, by catastrophic storms, or through misfortune, it often exposed asbestos-laden components to the open air or subjected them to flames or water, which meant more risk of having major asbestos contact.

With asbestos, the worst hazard of harmful exposure occurs in circumstances where items containing the mineral become breakable, because when the asbestos strands go into the surrounding air, the material may then be inhaled by those in the area. Medical research has shown that dangerous health problems such as asbestosis, lung cancer and several types of mesothelioma are linked to a high level of asbestos contact.

Since most asbestos-related diseases can be puzzling to detect, workers who were exposed to asbestos should definitely inform their physicians of the details 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 the inherent dangers of combat, those who sailed aboard the Hickox were, like servicemen on other craft of this type, all too often at risk for asbestos exposure, particularly since the Hickox saw some severe damage while at sea and had extensive renovations and overhauls. On top of this significant combat damage and redesign activity, our troops who worked aboard the Hickox were often subject to inhalation of asbestos fibers in the ordinary conduct of their duties. In addition, the chance of encountering asbestos was also high for repair personnel such as welders and electricians who maintained the ship when the Hickox spent time in port.

Considering the Hickox's service record, and based on what we now know about the outcome of asbestos exposure, it is imperative that the men who at any time in their career served or labored aboard this vessel, and those assigned to other American ships, learn about the hazards raised by former exposure to this deadly mineral.

Sources:

Destroyers Index