USS Reid DD-369

The USS Reid (DD-369) was a Mahan-class destroyer built during the 1930s as part of a naval modernization program at a time of rising geopolitical tensions, particularly between the United States and the Empire of Japan. She was built by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Kearny, New Jersey, and launched in January 1936. The Reid was commissioned on 2 November 1936 under the command of Capt. Robert B. Carney.

Service History

From 1937 until 1941, Reid participated in training and fleet maneuvers in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. On the morning of 7 December 1941, Reid was docked at Pearl Harbor; her crew fired at the incoming attackers, taking down one.

After the attack, Reid patrolled off the Hawaiian Islands, Palmyra Atoll, and Johnston Island for the next few weeks. The first part of 1942 was spent primarily escorting convoys between Hawaii, the mainland and Midway.

In May, Reid was ordered north to Alaska for the bombardment of Japanese positions on Kiska Island, Alaska. Over the summer of '42, she saw action several times, including the sinking of a Japanese submarine. After transferring five POWs to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, she was ordered back to the South Pacific in September. Reid spent October and November in routine patrols near New Caledonia, Samoa, and the Fiji Islands off the coast of New Guinea.

On Christmas Day 1942, she escorted Army troops to Guadalcanal, bombarding several enemy locations on that island over the ensuing weeks.

For almost two years, the USS Reid crisscrossed the battle zones of the South Pacific, providing radar support and direction for fighter aircraft, support fire for troop landings, and escort for transport vessels. The end came swiftly in December 1944, however, when the vessel was escorting landing craft heading for Ormoc Bay near Surigao Straits between Leyte and Mindanao in the Philippines.

By this time, the Rising Sun was starting to set in the Pacific, and the Japanese Empire was quickly running out of resources. Desperate, the IJN and IJA began calling upon their young men to carry out suicide bombings against Allied vessels. On 11 December, USS Reid came under attack by a large squadron of kamikaze suicide pilots. Her crew was able to destroy seven of the attackers before she sank under repeated blows. Survivors of the Reid were picked up by landing craft in her convoy.

Asbestos Risks

During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, every US Navy ship commonly utilized the substance known as asbestos for insulating compartments and for fire control. A ship's engines and mechanical compartments generally were the sections where a Navy file or maintenance worker was prone to be in danger of inhaling air contaminated with asbestos; nevertheless, nearly every part of the Reid offered a real danger of asbestos risk. Increased 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.

With asbestos, the worst danger to human health is experienced in circumstances where fibers become damaged and easily broken (or "friable"), because when the asbestos filaments are released into the air, the material can then be inhaled by people nearby. Even a modest level of asbestos proximity is a causative factor linked with malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and many other serious medical problems.

Because these asbestos-caused problems are hard to detect, workers with a history of contact with this mineral should definitely tell their family 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.

As is the case with servicemen on other ships of the same era, the crewmen who served on board the Reid were, along with the expected dangers of war, in danger of asbestos exposure, especially since the ship experienced heavy damage in battle and went through many reworkings and overhauls. On top of this serious damage and refit work, our troops who worked on board the Reid were often exposed to asbestos in the daily execution of their service. This risk of asbestos contact also existed for maintenance workers such as welders and electricians who worked on the Reid when the ship spent time at a shipyard.

Considering the Reid's record, and in light of our increased understanding of the outcome of asbestos exposure, it is imperative that servicemen who at any time in their career lived and labored aboard this vessel, as well as those who served on other Navy ships, become knowledgeable about the health hazards raised by former exposure to this deadly mineral.

Sources:

Destroyers Index