Naval reservists encountered the same shipboard asbestos as their active-duty shipmates — often without ever serving a full active-duty tour. Reserve service put sailors into engine rooms, fire rooms, and berthing compartments insulated with asbestos through several distinct paths, and the exposure counts the same way toward an asbestos-related diagnosis decades later.
Where Naval Reservists Encountered Asbestos
Reserve-manned ships (Naval Reserve Force). Through the Cold War, the Navy kept a share of its frigates and destroyer-type ships in the Naval Reserve Force (NRF), crewed largely by Selected Reservists who drilled aboard and stood their annual training in the ship’s own engineering spaces. The reserve-manned escort classes — the Knox-class and Garcia-class among them — carried the same steam-plant asbestos lagging, pipe insulation, gaskets, and packing as their active-fleet sisters.
The Reserve Fleet — the “mothball fleet.” The National Defense Reserve Fleet held hundreds of laid-up WWII- and Korea-era ships at anchorages such as Suisun Bay, the James River, and Beaumont. Preserving those ships (dehumidification and cocooning) and, above all, reactivating them disturbed large quantities of aged, friable asbestos insulation — work performed by reservists, active-duty sailors, and shipyard workers alike. Reactivation was some of the most asbestos-intensive work in the fleet, because it meant opening up decades-old lagging that had never been abated.
Annual training (ACDUTRA) aboard active ships. Two-week active-duty-for-training cruises placed reservists directly in the engineering and berthing spaces of active fleet ships, where the same asbestos-containing materials were in daily use.
VA Benefits for Naval Reserve Veterans
Reservist VA eligibility has a nuance that active-duty service does not. A reservist is generally considered a veteran for VA purposes when they served a period of active duty, or were disabled by an injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active duty for training (ACDUTRA). Where the asbestos exposure occurred during a qualifying period of active service — an ACDUTRA cruise, a reserve-fleet activation, or a mobilization aboard a reserve-manned ship — a reservist diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis, or pleural disease may qualify for VA disability compensation, when the record shows that in-service exposure, a current diagnosis, and a medical link between them.
Because that eligibility turns on when the exposure happened relative to the period of service, the service dates and duty status on a reservist’s record matter a great deal — and are worth pinning down early.
Separately, and regardless of VA status: anyone exposed to asbestos-containing products aboard ship may be able to bring a claim against the manufacturers of those products — the companies that made the insulation, gaskets, and packing, not the Navy.
Diagnosed with mesothelioma after asbestos exposure during Naval Reserve service? Naval Reserve veterans diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease after exposure aboard reserve-manned ships, during reserve-fleet activation, or on annual training may be able to pursue a claim against the makers of the asbestos products used aboard. Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 237-6461
Documented asbestos records are derived from publicly filed asbestos litigation and public naval records addressing vessels of this construction era. RightsWatch Media is an independent publisher, not a law firm; this is not legal or medical advice.