USS Putnam DD-757

USS Putnam (DD-757) was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer built by the union steelworkers of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Shipbuilding Division in San Francisco, California, and launched 26 March 1944. She was commissioned on 12 October 1944 under the command of Cmdr. Frederick Hilles.

World War II

Putnam's first combat assignment was to escort transport vessels carrying Marines of the 4th and 5th Divisions for duty in the Mariana Islands in late January 1945. Calling briefly at Eniwetok, Saipan, and Tinian, Putnam proceeded on 17 February to Iwo Jima. She arrived two days later as the amphibious landing and battle was already underway.

On 23 February, then-Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, who had come to the battle zone in order to observe the operation, became a passenger aboard Putnam as the destroyer transported the cabinet member to Guam for a conference with Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

Putnam departed Guam 12 March to escort a convoy to Leyte in the Philippines, and from there escorted a transport group to Okinawa, where she took up antiaircraft screening duties.

In April, the Putnam was assigned to a hazardous radar picket station. She was saved from almost certain destruction by a kamikaze pilot on 16 June by an unidentified American pilot who sacrificed himself by ramming the enemy aircraft just seconds before it would have hit the destroyer.

Post-War Duties

Putnam spent the autumn of 1945 in occupation duty, then returned to the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn for yard availability. The remainder of the decade was spent primarily performing diplomatic missions out of her home port of Newport, Rhode Island.

After a brief period of decommissioned reserve status with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Putnam reactivated in October 1950. A tour of the Mediterranean occupied the vessel from October 1951 through 4 June 1952. Local operations and overhaul were followed by Caribbean refresher training 21 May through 10 July 1953.

In the fall of 1953, Putnam was ordered to the Far East. She operated in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea until March 1954, returning to Norfolk in May.

Training cruises took Putnam from the east coast to the Mediterranean and the Caribbean over the next few years, as well as joint operations with NATO forces. In September 1958, the Putnam underwent an overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

In 1959 Putnam, participating in the first "Inland Seas" operation, sailed in all five of the Great Lakes. Between 1960 and 1969 the destroyer was assigned yearly deployments to the Mediterranean with the 5th Fleet, with time out for a FRAM modernization at the New York Naval Shipyard between June 1962 and March 1963.

Fate

In August 1973, Putnam was decommissioned; she was sold for scrap a year later.

Asbestos Risks

Through the war era, every Navy ship commonly installed the fibrous mineral asbestos for compartment insulation and as fire control. Although nearly all parts of the Putnam posed a real danger of asbestos risk, a seaman or a shipyard worker was especially prone to inhale strands of asbestos when near the ship's engines and mechanical compartments. Additional risk of undergoing extensive asbestos contact occurred whenever the vessel took damage, whether in battle or accidentally, as that frequently uncovered asbestos-containing compartments to the open air or subjected them to flames or flooding.

With asbestos, the highest level of danger to human health is experienced when products made from the mineral are easily broken (or ""friable""), because when the asbestos filaments can enter the surrounding air, the material may then be inhaled by workers nearby. Extensive research has demonstrated that dangerous diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer and multiple forms of mesothelioma are caused by occupational asbestos exposure.

Since many asbestos-caused conditions can be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can be mistaken for those of other illnesses, workers exposed to asbestos fibers should immediately notify their doctors 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 expected dangers associated with combat, sailors on board the Putnam were, as with people on the other ships of this type, frequently endangered by asbestos inhalation, in spite of the fact the destroyer absorbed remarkably little damage in battle and went through mostly routine redesigns and repairs. Regardless of the lack of serious battle damage and refit activity, the troops who lived and worked on board the Putnam were nevertheless in contact with asbestos in the daily conduct of their duty.

In addition, asbestos exposure was a daily occurrence for repair personnel such as welders and carpenters who worked on this ship when she spent time at a shipyard. For the sailors who lived or worked on board this naval vessel at any time in their career, and those assigned to other naval vessels, it is critical to become well informed about the risks posed by former exposure to asbestos, especially given what we now know about the outcome of asbestos inhalation.

Sources:

Destroyers Index