USS Rodman DD-456

USS Rodman (DD-456/DMS-21) was a Gleaves-class destroyer built by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Kearny, New Jersey, launched 26 September 1941 and commissioned on 27 January 1942. The Gleaves- and Benson-class destroyers were the last of the U.S. Navy's third generation of "modern" destroyers built between 1932 and 1940 to replace the aging four-stack, flush deckers of World War I. No example of these pre-World War II destroyers (from the Farragut-class to the Gleaves) have been preserved.

War Service

Rodman was initially assigned to Task Force 22 in 1942, alternating training and patrol duties out of Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. This took her to Africa's Gold Coast several times with carriers ferrying Army aircraft for duty during the North Africa campaign. Detached in June, she escorted a seven-troopship convoy to Scotland, then continued on to the Orkneys, where she commenced operations with the British Home Fleet. Based at Scapa Flow until August, her primary mission was to protect the southern legs of the convoy lanes between the United States and Great Britain and the northern Soviet ports of Murmansk and Archangel.

On 1 September, Rodman got underway for New York. After undergoing maintenance at the Boston Navy Yard, she resumed training and patrols off the New England coast. On 25 October, she was ordered to the western Mediterranean in order to support the amphibious invasion of North Africa.

Heading North Again

After two more runs to Africa ferrying aircraft for the USAAF, Rodman remained in the western Atlantic in the early spring of 1943 on patrol and escort duty. In May, she returned to the United Kingdom.

Arriving at Scapa Flow on the 18th, Rodman rejoined the British Home Fleet. Into the summer she and her sister ships patrolled out of Scotland and Iceland, providing escort protection for larger, less maneuverable battleships of both the USN and the Royal Navy.

With August, Rodman returned to the United States, and by 1 September she had resumed patrols out of the Argentia NS. Detached in October, she departed Norfolk on 3 November for Bermuda to escort the battleship USS Iowa as the latter vessel carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the first leg of his journey to the Teheran Conference.

The Mediterranean

Rodman returned to the United States in mid-December of 1943, escorting carriers on training exercises out of Newport and Portland, Maine, until April 1944.

On 20 April, Rodman again headed for North Africa, conducting joint antisubmarine warfare missions with the Royal Navy. This joint British-U.S. effort managed to reduce the number of operational U-boats in the Mediterranean by over 33 percent between March and June of that year.

On 22 May 1944, Rodman returned to Plymouth to prepare for Operation Neptune, the naval phase of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. She was among those vessels that supported the landings on Omaha Beach on the afternoon of 6 June. For the next 10 days, she and her crew provided gunfire support and patrolled in the Baie de la Seine.

Toward the end of June, she was ordered to participate in training for Operation Dragoon ("Anvil"), the invasion of southern France. Following this operation, during which she was joined by vessels of the Free French Navy, Rodman was assigned to screening and patrol duties until late October. After escorting a convoy back to the United States, Rodman reported to the Boston Navy Yard for conversion to a destroyer minesweeper. Emerging from the yard as DMS-21 on 16 December, she sailed for Norfolk the following week.

To the Pacific

On 1 January 1945, Rodman sailed for the Pacific. During the next six weeks, she conducted minesweeping and gunnery exercises off California and in Hawaiian waters, then sailed for the Ryukyus and the assault on the Japanese home islands.

While on a minesweeping mission off Okinawa shortly after 3:30 p.m. on 1 April 1945, Rodman was attacked by kamikaze suicide pilots. During a battle that lasted over three and a half hours, Rodman was struck three times, losing 16 crewmen (in addition to her bow) and injuring 20 more.

Rodman underwent a month of temporary repairs at the captured IJN base on nearby Kerama Retto, then sailed for the United States. For this vessel, the war was over; arriving at Charleston Navy Yard on 19 June, her repairs were not completed until mid-October.

Postwar Service and Fate

For the next three years, Rodman operated along the U.S. east coast, ranging from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. In September 1949, she was ordered to join the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Although this first deployment lasted only two weeks, she did two more tours of duty in those waters over the next several years.

Rodman reverted to destroyer status on 15 January 1955. At the end of July 1955, she was decommissioned and transferred the same day to the Taiwanese Navy, where she served as the RCS Hsien Yang (DD-16). She ended her days by being blown up during the production of a big-budget action film in 1976.

Asbestos Risks

On every American navy vessel through WWII, the substance known as asbestos was widely employed for insulating pipes and as fire control. Though nearly all compartments of the Rodman presented a real danger of asbestos risk, crewmen and shipyard workers were particularly prone to be at risk of exposure to asbestos in the air when working near a ship's boilers and mechanical spaces. If the warship took damage, whether in combat, by Mother Nature, or by accident, it almost inevitably exposed asbestos-laden fixtures to the open air or subjected them to fire or flooding. This brought about further risk of experiencing harmful levels of asbestos contact.

The greatest danger of harmful exposure when dealing with asbestos occurs whenever products made from the mineral are easily broken, because if tiny asbestos strands can enter the surrounding air, the material may then be breathed in by workers in the area. A high level of asbestos exposure is conclusively linked to mesothelioma, asbestosis, cancer of the lungs and many other major health ailments.

Workers with a history of contact with this mineral should therefore make a point to inform their doctors, as most asbestos-caused conditions can be hard to distinguish from 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.

It is a regrettable fact that on top of the normal hazards of war, sailors who on board the Rodman were, as with servicemen on other vessels of this class, frequently in danger of asbestos fiber exposure. This was especially true because the ship experienced heavy damage in combat and required extensive renovations and repairs. In addition to the serious combat damage and refit work, troops who served on the Rodman were also in contact with asbestos in the normal course of their duties. The chance of encountering asbestos was also high for port-based workers such as welders and electricians who maintained the craft whenever she was dry-docked.

Given what we now know about the result of asbestos inhalation, the troops who sailed or worked aboard the Rodman at any time in their career, and those assigned to other American ships, need to be thoroughly informed about the risks posed by service-related exposure to asbestos, particularly in light of the ship's history.

Sources:

Destroyers Index