USS Lowry DD-770

The USS Lowry (DD-770) was laid down on 1 August 1943 by the Bethlehem Steel Company in San Pedro, California, and launched on 6 February 1944. She was a destroyer of the Allen M. Sumner class, named for Reigart Bolivar Lowry, hero of the Mexican American War and the US Civil War and member of Mathew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in 1855.

Service in the Second World War

The Lowry was commissioned 23 July 1944 and cleared San Pedro on 26 October of that year for training at Pearl Harbor.

The Lowry served as an escort between Mindoro Island and Leyte, and served as part of a strike force to repel enemies from Mindoro. During the Luzon invasion, she served as screener and fire support, patrolling the areas around Lingayen until 22 January.

She screened Task Force 58 near Honshu during the Iwo Jima invasion and then traveled to southern Japan to serve as a screener for the Okinawa invasion, where she remained until 29 April. She then had radar picket duty around Okinawa, during which time she was repeatedly engaged in Japanese aircraft actions.

On 28 May, the picket destroyer accompanying the Lowry, the Drexler, was hit and sunk by two kamikazes. The Lowry rescued survivors from the wreck. After serving as a minesweeper from 29 June in the South China Sea, she arrived in San Pedro Bay on 27 July. The Lowry received the Navy Unit Commendation for her radar picket work.

On 24 August, the Lowry assisted Task Force 38 for occupation duties, providing POWs food and transporting passengers from Okinawa to the United States. After that assignment, she was overhauled at San Diego on 21 October.

During the atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll, the Lowry patrolled the area as part of Operation Crossroads. She continued training near the Hawaiian Islands and was then decommissioned on 30 June 1947, whereupon she entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

The Lowry was recommissioned on 27 December 1950 and was overhauled at Norfolk on 30 April 1951. After training exercises around the Caribbean, she joined the 7th Fleet. As part of Task Force 77, and later Task Force 95, she served near Korea. Her duties included screening, shore bombardment, plane guard and gunstrike missions.

The Lowry trained near the Caribbean and southeastern United States from 19 August 1952 to 1 February 1954. After once circumnavigating the globe, she was deployed in the Mediterranean along with the 6th Fleet. She continued training and was overhauled in February 1957. She also participated in the North Atlantic NATO "Strikeback" exercises.

The Lowry underwent a FRAM II overhaul, which was completed on 14 January 1961, after her third tour ended on 26 February 1960. She then joined the research and development Anti-submarine Warfare Task Group Alpha, serving with this group until 1965. A DASH system was installed on the Lowry after her time in the Mediterranean, whereupon she participated in operational exercises along with the Atlantic Fleet from February to 12 July. She was then deployed with the 6th Fleet.

Her next duty was serving as a school ship for the Key West Fleet Sonar School. She trained a number of midshipmen from Peru as part of the Midshipmen Exchange Program in 1967, was overhauled at Norfolk from May through September, then underwent refresher training at Guantanamo Bay.

She was deployed as part of the 7th Fleet in 1968 for the Vietnam conflict, and only returned to Norfolk on 27 November. Her Atlantic coast operations continued until 1969.

Retirement and Brazilian Service

The Lowry was finally struck from the naval register on 31 October 1973; she was transferred to the Brazilian Navy on the same day. She was then renamed the Espirito Santo and continued in the serve of the Brazilian Navy.

Sources are unclear as to the final disposition of the Lowry. Reliable sources indicate variously that the ship, while in Brazilian custody, was struck from the register on 2 February 1996 and subsequently used in target practice and sunk, or that she was sold for scrap in 1998, or that she is still active in the service of Brazil.

Asbestos Risks

Through two world wars, each American naval vessel routinely used the mineral asbestos for insulation and as fireproofing, with the vessel's boiler room and engineering spaces where a seaman or a dockworker was most likely to be exposed to particles of asbestos; nevertheless, essentially every section of a ship like the Lowry presented a measurable level of asbestos contamination. Even more danger of major asbestos inhalation occurred if a ship took damage, whether in combat or by accident, as that frequently exposed asbestos-laden compartments to the air or subjected them to flames or water.

When dealing with asbestos, the most serious hazard of harmful exposure is experienced if products made from the mineral are friable, tiny asbestos strands go into the surrounding air, and the particles are then inhaled by people nearby. Even modest levels of asbestos proximity is a causative factor linked to malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and many other serious medical problems, so those who were exposed to asbestos fibers should make a point to inform their medical professionals, because many asbestos-caused diseases are puzzling to diagnose (the symptoms can be mistaken for those of other illnesses). 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.

The sailors who fought on board the Lowry were constantly, in addition to the inherent hazards associated with combat, endangered by asbestos fiber exposure even though the ship suffered moderate damage in combat and went through numerous but routine reworkings and overhauls. Despite the lack of serious damage and refit work, the troops who lived and worked aboard the Lowry were nevertheless exposed to asbestos in the ordinary course of their duty. This danger also existed for maintenance workers such as welders and electricians who repaired the Lowry whenever the vessel spent time in port.

For the men who served and labored aboard this naval vessel at any time in their career, and those assigned to her sisters in the fleet, it is vital to be thoroughly informed about the dangers posed by wartime exposure to asbestos, especially given what we now know about the result of asbestos exposure.

Sources:

Destroyers Index