Draftsmen — the DN rating, later consolidated into the Engineering Aid (EA) rating within the Navy’s Seabee construction forces — served as the United States Navy’s technical drawing, surveying, and construction engineering support specialists, responsible for producing technical drawings for naval construction projects, performing topographic and hydrographic surveys, and providing construction engineering calculations and support for Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) operations. Engineering Aids served with Naval Mobile Construction Battalions and Naval Construction Force units in the Pacific and Atlantic theaters, supporting construction projects at naval bases, naval air stations, and forward-deployed naval construction projects. EA duties required working in construction offices and at construction sites where naval facilities were being built or repaired using the construction materials of the Cold War era — construction materials that extensively included asbestos-containing products in all types of naval construction through the 1970s. Engineering Aids also worked in the offices and engineering spaces of Naval Construction Force facilities constructed using asbestos-containing building materials consistent with their Cold War construction periods.

Engineering Aid Asbestos Exposure at Naval Construction Projects

Engineering Aids accumulated asbestos exposure at naval construction sites:

  • Construction project site work — Engineering Aids performing on-site surveys, construction layout work, and construction inspection at naval base construction projects moved through construction sites where asbestos-containing materials — pipe insulation, floor tile, ceiling materials, roofing, and construction adhesives — were being installed. Construction site presence during the installation of asbestos-containing construction materials created direct asbestos exposure for Engineering Aids performing construction support functions
  • As-built drawing work on existing facilities — Engineering Aids producing as-built drawings of existing naval facilities and ships required access to the actual facility structures and spaces to verify dimensions and configurations, taking them through existing facilities incorporating asbestos-containing construction materials installed in earlier construction periods

Engineering Aid Naval Construction Force Facility Asbestos

Engineering Aids working in NMCB and NCF facilities accumulated background asbestos exposure:

  • Naval Mobile Construction Battalion facility construction — the administrative buildings, engineering offices, and construction support facilities occupied by Naval Mobile Construction Battalions at their home bases — including Gulfport, Mississippi and Port Hueneme, California — were constructed using military construction specifications incorporating asbestos-containing building materials. Engineering Aids working in NMCB engineering offices accumulated background asbestos exposure from the construction materials of those facilities
  • Overseas construction project facilities — Engineering Aids deployed with NMCBs to construction projects at forward-deployed naval bases, naval air stations, and other overseas naval facilities worked in temporary and permanent facilities constructed using the construction materials of those projects and locations

VA Claims for DN/EA Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure from Navy Seabee construction service. Engineering Aids who accumulated asbestos exposure during their DN/EA career and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.