Legalmen — LN ratings — provided clerical, paralegal, and administrative support for Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) offices, legal assistance offices, and courts-martial proceedings at shore commands and aboard aircraft carriers. LN billets were primarily at shore commands with JAG offices — naval stations, naval air stations, and district legal offices — with some LN billets aboard carriers for ship’s legal office functions.

LN ratings working in shore command JAG and legal offices accumulated secondary asbestos exposure:

  • WWII-era building legal offices — the JAG offices and legal assistance offices at naval stations and naval air stations were typically located in administrative buildings of the WWII-era or early Cold War construction era that used standard period building materials including asbestos ceiling tile, floor tile, and building mechanical system insulation. LN ratings spending entire duty tours working in these buildings were in proximity to the building’s deteriorating asbestos-containing construction materials throughout their assignment
  • Shore facility administrative building construction — the administrative building complexes at major Navy commands housing district JAG offices and legal centers used the same WWII-era and postwar commercial building construction with asbestos-containing building products as all other Navy shore facilities of the period
  • Building renovation and maintenance exposure — shore facility maintenance and renovation activities in occupied Navy buildings periodically disturbed asbestos-containing ceiling tile, floor tile, and pipe insulation in the working spaces occupied by legal office personnel, creating secondary exposure from ongoing building maintenance

LN ratings serving in carrier legal office billets accumulated shipboard asbestos exposure:

  • Carrier ship interior — LN ratings serving in the ship’s legal office aboard Essex class, Midway class, and Forrestal class carriers and later carriers worked in the asbestos-containing interior of these WWII-era and 1950s-1960s-era vessels throughout their sea duty assignments

VA Claims for LN Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure at naval shore facilities and aboard Navy vessels. Legalmen who served in shore commands with WWII-era or early Cold War building stock or aboard pre-1980 carriers and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.