Navy Machinery Repairmen (MR) — the enlisted rating responsible for operating precision machine shop equipment to fabricate and repair mechanical parts, manufacture replacement components for ship engineering plant machinery, and perform precision machining operations in support of ship maintenance — served primarily aboard submarine tenders (AS class), destroyer tenders (AD class), and repair ships (AR class), and at naval shore industrial facilities. MR ratings operated lathes, milling machines, drill presses, grinders, and other machine shop equipment to produce replacement pump impellers, valve components, bearing races, shaft sleeves, and other precision machined parts required for engineering plant maintenance that could not be fulfilled through standard supply channels. Machinery Repairmen machining asbestos-containing gasket sheet stock to fabricate replacement gaskets — a routine machine shop task supporting engineering plant maintenance — cut and shaped asbestos-containing compressed sheet gasket material during each custom gasket fabrication operation, releasing asbestos fiber from the machined gasket material surfaces. The machine shop buildings on submarine tenders, destroyer tenders, and at naval shore facilities were also constructed with asbestos-containing building materials providing background exposure for MR ratings working in the tender and shore machine shop spaces.

Machine Shop Gasket Fabrication Asbestos

MR ratings fabricating custom gaskets encountered concentrated asbestos:

  • Compressed sheet gasket stock cutting and machining — when standard replacement gaskets were not available through supply channels, Machinery Repairmen fabricated custom replacement gaskets by cutting and machining asbestos-containing compressed sheet gasket stock to the required dimensions and configurations. The gasket fabrication process — marking the gasket outline, cutting the outer profile, drilling or punching the bolt holes, and finishing the gasket faces — involved direct handling and machining of asbestos-containing compressed sheet gasket material, releasing asbestos fiber from the machined gasket material surfaces throughout the fabrication operation
  • Gasket grinding and finishing operations — Machinery Repairmen using grinding wheels and machining equipment to finish custom-fabricated gaskets to precise dimensional tolerances generated asbestos-containing grinding dust and machining debris from the asbestos gasket stock during the finishing operations. Machine shop grinding and milling operations on asbestos-containing gasket sheet stock created particularly concentrated asbestos fiber release compared to hand-cutting operations
  • Asbestos sheet and rope material handling — machine shop facilities aboard tenders and at shore maintenance facilities maintained stocks of asbestos-containing materials — compressed asbestos sheet in various grades and thicknesses, asbestos rope packing, and asbestos tape — as standard maintenance supply items. MR ratings handling, cutting, and issuing asbestos-containing maintenance materials from machine shop supply stocks accumulated exposure from direct handling of the asbestos maintenance materials

Tender Machine Shop Facility Asbestos

MR ratings in tender machine shops accumulated background asbestos exposure:

  • Submarine and destroyer tender machine shop construction — the machine shop spaces aboard submarine tenders and destroyer tenders — AS-class and AD-class vessels built during the WWII and early Cold War era — were constructed with asbestos-containing ship interior construction materials in the machine shop overhead, bulkhead, and utility system construction. MR ratings working in tender machine shop spaces accumulated background asbestos exposure from the asbestos-insulated tender construction in addition to direct machining exposure from gasket fabrication operations
  • Naval shore machine shop facility construction — the machine shop buildings at naval shore facilities — naval shipyard machine shops, naval station industrial shops, and naval repair facility machine shops — were constructed with asbestos-containing building materials in the facility construction. MR ratings working in naval shore machine shop buildings accumulated background asbestos exposure from the asbestos-containing machine shop building construction throughout their shore duty assignments

VA Claims for Navy Machinery Repairmen

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure from Navy machine shop and repair operations. Machinery Repairmen who performed gasket fabrication and machining operations involving asbestos-containing materials aboard tenders and at naval shore facilities and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.