The Interior Communications Electrician (IC) rating — commonly called the “IC man” — maintained the ship’s internal communications and control systems: the announcing (1MC) and telephone systems, sound-powered phone circuits, gyrocompass systems, engine order telegraphs, ship’s service telephone switchboards, and the cable networks connecting them throughout the vessel. IC men worked in every compartment on the ship, routing communications cable through machinery spaces, berthing areas, and engineering compartments — spaces saturated with asbestos-containing insulation — while also maintaining shipboard switchboards with asbestos-backed insulating panels.

Publicly filed asbestos litigation records document IC exposure from communications switchboards, cable installations, and the below-deck spaces IC men accessed throughout their service.

Documented Exposure Sources

Interior Communications Switchboards — Asbestos Backing

IC men maintained the ship’s interior communications switchboards — the centralized telephone and announcing system switching equipment installed in communications spaces. Like the Electrician’s Mate’s electrical distribution switchgear, IC switchboards used asbestos board as a backing and insulating material between live contacts and panel structure through the pre-1970 era.

Asbestos-Insulated Cable — Telephone and Announcing Systems

IC cable runs — connecting switchboards to phone stations, 1MC speakers, and announcing system equipment throughout the ship — used the same asbestos-insulated wiring as other Navy shipboard electrical systems through the 1970s.

Full-Ship Access — Below-Deck and Engineering Spaces

IC men ran cable through every compartment on the ship — including the most asbestos-saturated spaces: firerooms, engine rooms, and auxiliary machinery spaces. Running cable through these spaces required sustained below-deck work in the same environment maintained by Boiler Tenders and Machinist’s Mates.

IC A School — Training Facility Exposure

Engineering Space Bystander Exposure

IC cable routes necessarily passed through engineering spaces — the most asbestos-dense environment on any steam-powered Navy vessel. IC men routing cable through firerooms and engine rooms worked in direct proximity to deteriorating overhead asbestos insulation and asbestos-covered piping while performing their communications work.

Product Identification Records

The Interior Communications Electrician rating qualifies for VA service connection under VA asbestos-claim guidance based on documented below-deck cable work in asbestos-containing spaces, maintenance of asbestos-backed communications switchboards, and full-ship cable routing through engineering spaces with asbestos-containing insulation.

Key documents for an IC claim:

  • DD-214 Block 11 — primary specialty showing IC rate
  • Ship assignments — duty stations from DD-214 or NARA muster rolls
  • Diagnosis — mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis, or pleural disease

Civil claims may run against communications switchboard manufacturers, cable manufacturers (Okonite, Essex Wire), and asbestos backing board manufacturers (Johns Manville, Eagle-Picher) whose products were used in shipboard IC systems.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956

All consultations are free. No fee unless a financial recovery is made on your behalf.

Documented asbestos exposure information derived from publicly filed asbestos litigation records. This does not constitute legal or medical advice.