Fleet Activities Yokosuka, located on Tokyo Bay approximately 30 miles south of Tokyo, is the US Navy’s largest overseas naval installation and has served as the primary western Pacific forward operating base since the US occupation of Japan in 1945. Yokosuka homeports the Seventh Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) and serves as the homeport for forward-deployed naval forces (FDNF) surface combatants — carrier battle groups, destroyer squadrons, and amphibious ships — operating in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean. US Navy personnel stationed at Yokosuka and aboard vessels homeported there have served at this installation continuously for over 75 years.

Forward-Deployed Carrier and Surface Ship Asbestos

The carriers and surface combatants homeported at Yokosuka through the Cold War era were built with full asbestos insulation in their engineering spaces:

  • USS Midway (CV-41) — homeported at Yokosuka from 1973 to 1991, the Midway was a Midway class carrier built in 1945 with extensive asbestos insulation throughout its engineering spaces. Midway’s crew members serving during the 1973-1985 period were stationed aboard a vessel with full asbestos construction in its fire rooms and engine rooms, with an engineering plant that had undergone multiple SCB modernizations adding contemporary construction amid original asbestos-era framing
  • USS Independence (CV-62) — Forrestal class carrier homeported at Yokosuka 1991-1998, built 1959 with asbestos construction; crew members in early-to-mid Independence Yokosuka deployment era served aboard a vessel built during full asbestos use period
  • Destroyer squadrons homeported at Yokosuka during the 1960s-1980s included Gearing, Forrest Sherman, and later Knox and Spruance class destroyers — vessels with varying degrees of asbestos content based on their construction period

USS Blue Ridge

USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), the Seventh Fleet flagship continuously homeported at Yokosuka since 1979, was built in 1970 with asbestos insulation consistent with early-1970s naval construction. Blue Ridge crew members and staff personnel serving aboard the flagship during the 1979-1990s period served on a vessel with asbestos-era engineering spaces.

Shore Facilities and Older Infrastructure

Fleet Activities Yokosuka’s shore facilities include buildings dating to the original Imperial Japanese Navy facilities occupied in 1945 and to US military construction of the early occupation period:

  • Early occupation-era buildings — US military construction in the 1945-1955 period used standard military construction materials including asbestos-containing materials in building mechanical systems, floor tile, and ceiling construction in older Yokosuka buildings
  • Japanese Imperial Navy facilities — the older Japanese naval infrastructure occupied at the base’s establishment used construction materials from the prewar and wartime Japanese naval construction program

VA Claims for Yokosuka Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure in overseas Navy service. Veterans who served aboard carriers and surface combatants homeported at Yokosuka that were built before the mid-1980s asbestos phase-down — particularly USS Midway, USS Independence, USS Blue Ridge, and destroyer/frigate assignments — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.