Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, located in Seal Beach in Orange County, California, is the Pacific Fleet’s primary ordnance and ammunition installation — providing ammunition storage, ordnance loading, and weapons support for Pacific Fleet surface ships. The station was established in 1944 as a wartime ordnance storage facility and has served continuously as a major Pacific Fleet weapons support installation. Navy personnel stationed at NWS Seal Beach and aboard ships loading ordnance at the station accumulated asbestos exposure from the station’s WWII-era building infrastructure and from the ships’ engineering spaces.

WWII-Era Magazine and Building Infrastructure

NWS Seal Beach was established in 1944 with a building and magazine complex reflecting wartime construction standards:

  • WWII-era ammunition magazines — the reinforced concrete ammunition magazines at NWS Seal Beach built in 1944-1945 used construction materials standard to wartime military construction, with asbestos-containing materials in building mechanical systems serving the magazines’ environmental control systems and in administrative and support building construction throughout the installation
  • Ordnance handling buildings and shops — the ordnance handling and maintenance facilities at NWS Seal Beach — fuze assembly shops, ordnance maintenance buildings, and ammunition preparation facilities — used WWII-era and postwar construction with asbestos-containing materials in building mechanical systems and construction
  • Base steam heating — steam heating distribution serving older NWS Seal Beach buildings used asbestos-insulated pipe in the base heating plant distribution system

Ammunition Loading Ship Exposure

Pacific Fleet surface ships and submarines loading ordnance at NWS Seal Beach pier facilities were vessels with asbestos-containing construction in their engineering spaces:

  • Engineering ratings aboard Pacific Fleet destroyers, cruisers, and carriers mooring at NWS Seal Beach for ammunition loading were aboard vessels with asbestos insulation in their engineering spaces — the ordnance loading availability providing a port period during which engineering department maintenance (including steam system maintenance) was often performed
  • Weapons loadout from NWS Seal Beach pier facilities was conducted by weapons handling crews working between the pier ordnance storage and the ships’ weapons handling systems

Gunner’s Mates (GM) and Aviation Ordnancemen (AO) assigned to NWS Seal Beach in ordnance logistics billets worked in the station’s older WWII-era buildings and magazine complexes throughout their shore duty assignments.

VA Claims for NWS Seal Beach Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure at naval weapons installations. Veterans who served at NWS Seal Beach in older WWII-era buildings or aboard ships loading ordnance at the station and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.