USS Sicard DD-346

USS Sicard (DD-346/DM-21/AG-100) was a Clemson-class destroyer built for the United States Navy after World War I. Clemson-type destroyers were the last "flush-deck," four-pipe destroyers ever built and, until World War II, the most numerous type of combat vessel in the U.S. Navy.

Sicard was constructed by the Bath Iron Works and launched on 20 April 1920. She was commissioned on 9 June 1920, Lt. J. K. Davis in temporary command.

The Early Years

During her first two years in the water, Sicard operated on the east coast and in the Caribbean and Panama Canal Zone areas, engaging in battle and torpedo practice and fleet maneuvers. Periodic maintenance and repairs were carried out at the New York Navy Yard.

In late April 1922, Sicard was repaired and fitted out for duty on the Asiatic Station. On 15 June, she got underway with her squadron for her new station in Che-Fu, China, sailing eastward via the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The squadron arrived on 26 August and joined the Asiatic Fleet, where Sicard remained for the next seven years. She received periodic overhauls at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines when not engaged in fleet exercises and the protection of American business interests and U.S. citizens living in Asia.

In late August 1923, violent earthquakes destroyed a large part of Tokyo and Yokohama. Sicard was among several units of the U.S. Navy to render humanitarian assistance that fall.

During the next few years, Sicard's patrols in Chinese waters became more frequent because of the growing internecine conflicts in that country that threatened to spill over Chinese borders. Sicard and her squadron were relieved of those duties in the summer of 1929 and returned to San Diego in mid-August.

The next six years were fairly routine for Sicard as she operated out of southern California. However, in May 1935, while engaging in war games off Diamond Head, Oahu, Sicard was rammed by Lea and badly damaged. The ship was towed to the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, where she underwent three months of repair work.

World War II

By the late 1930s, Japan was hopelessly in the grip of a fascist military government bent on rule of the entire Asian continent. Although the shooting war was still several years in the future, the Roosevelt Administration was seeing the handwriting on the wall. In May 1937, Sicard entered the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for conversion to a light minelayer and reclassified DM-21. Except for a brief trip to the west coast for repairs, Sicard operated in the Hawaiian area through 1941, engaging in training exercises, battle simulations known as "fleet problems," and joint Army-Navy exercises in addition to reconnaissance patrols around Midway and outlying islands.

Sicard was undergoing an overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941.

Into Action

On completion of her overhaul, Sicard left Pearl Harbor to take up an antisubmarine patrol station southwest of Oahu, where she escorted ships within her area and searched for hostile submarines. Between April and November of 1942, her crew laid minefields from the Hawaiian Islands and the vicinity to the Aleutians. She reported back to San Francisco in November for maintenance and repairs, which lasted well into December.

After several months of amphibious landing exercises off San Diego, Sicard sailed on 24 April 1943 with a convoy of troop transports for the assault on Attu in the Aleutians. Sicard was to have acted as a landing craft control vessel for the operation, but during the night before the landing, she collided with another destroyer in a dense fog. Sicard towed the other vessel into Adak, and then proceeded to San Francisco for repairs, which took almost three months. She then returned to Alaskan waters until ordered to Pearl Harbor in September.

Sicard left Pearl Harbor on 24 September for the Solomon Islands. There, she joined a fast mine-laying group.

Between December 1943 and April 1944, she escorted convoys between the Solomons and New Zealand and Kwajalein. On 1 May 1944, she resumed her minelaying role before she was ordered back to Alameda, California, in July 1944 for an overhaul.

Sicard completed her latest repairs on 20 September and, after refresher training for her crew, sailed for Pearl Harbor. In mid-November, she commenced submarines training duty, conducting daily exercises with submarines in the area for the duration of the war.

Fate

In October 1945, Sicard arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for inactivation. She was sold for scrap the following summer.

Asbestos Risks

In every American naval destroyer through two world wars, asbestos, a fibrous mineral, was widely used for insulating compartments and as fire control. Though essentially every part of the Sicard posed at least some asbestos risk, the ship's boilers and mechanical compartments generally were the spaces where sailors or shipyard workers were likely to be exposed to asbestos dust. Even greater risk of experiencing extensive asbestos contact resulted if the vessel was damaged, in combat or by accident, as that often exposed asbestos-containing compartments to the air or subjected them to fire or flooding.

When dealing with asbestos, the most serious hazard of exposure occurs in circumstances where products made from the mineral become easily broken (or "friable"), because if minute asbestos strands are released into the surrounding air, the particles can then be breathed in by workers near the exposure. Historically, asbestos intake is conclusively associated with malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis, tumors, and other major medical problems.

Since many asbestos-related conditions are tricky to diagnose, Navy personnel exposed to this mineral should promptly inform 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 in the form on this page to receive a comprehensive packet in the mail.

It is an unfortunate fact that on top of the normal hazards associated with combat, sailors who fought on board the Sicard were, like servicemen on her sister destroyers, all too often at risk for asbestos fiber inhalation in spite of the fact she endured moderate damage in battle and underwent mostly routine redesigns and repair jobs. In spite of the lack of large-scale battle damage and repair work, those who worked on the Sicard were nevertheless endangered by asbestos fibers in the daily execution of their duty. Moreover, this was particularly true for maintenance workers such as welders and carpenters who repaired this naval vessel whenever she was dry-docked.

For the troops who sailed and labored on board this naval vessel at any point in their career, as well as those who served on similar ships, it is very important to learn more about the risks posed by their former exposure to asbestos fibers, especially in light of our increased understanding of the outcome of prolonged contact with asbestos.

Sources:

Destroyers Index