Navy Counselors — NC rating — served as enlisted career counselors advising Navy sailors on reenlistment decisions, career development, and Navy programs, assigned to large ship billets, naval station command career counseling offices, and Navy recruiting district offices across the country. NC ratings typically had prior enlisted service in other ratings before qualifying as career counselors, meaning they entered the NC specialty with years of accumulated Navy service that may have included exposure from earlier shipboard or shore duty assignments. In their NC assignments, career counselors served in shipboard administrative spaces and in shore-based career counseling and recruiting offices, accumulating asbestos exposure from the WWII-era and Cold War construction of the naval facilities where they worked.

Shore Office Facility Construction and Asbestos

NC ratings in shore office assignments were in asbestos-containing building stock:

  • Naval station career counseling office buildings — the career counseling offices at naval stations and shore commands used standard Navy shore facility construction with asbestos floor tile, asbestos ceiling products, and asbestos-containing pipe insulation in the mechanical systems of the shore command administrative buildings. NC ratings spending extended duty periods in these office spaces were in daily proximity to the asbestos-containing floor and ceiling construction of the administrative facility buildings
  • Navy recruiting office building construction — Navy Counselors assigned to Navy Recruiting Districts worked in recruiting offices located in civilian commercial and government office buildings, where WWII-era and Cold War-era office building construction commonly used asbestos-containing floor tile, ceiling tile, and building construction materials. NC ratings working extended duty assignments in these older recruiting office buildings accumulated asbestos exposure from the asbestos-containing floor and ceiling construction in the office spaces

Shipboard Career Counseling Assignment Asbestos

NC ratings assigned to ship billets accumulated asbestos exposure from ship construction:

  • Large ship administrative spaces — Navy Counselors assigned to aircraft carrier, amphibious ship, and large auxiliary ship billets worked in the ship’s administrative spaces, which on WWII-era and Cold War-era vessels used asbestos-containing deck tile, overhead insulation, and construction materials throughout the interior ship spaces where administrative personnel worked

Prior Service Rating Exposure

Many NC ratings accumulated significant asbestos exposure before entering the counselor specialty:

  • Prior to qualifying for the NC rating, Navy Counselors served in other ratings that may have involved direct engineering space exposure, aviation maintenance exposure, or construction activity exposure — creating cumulative asbestos exposure from earlier Navy service that predated their NC assignment

VA Claims for NC Rating Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure at naval stations and aboard Navy ships. Navy Counselors who served at naval stations with WWII-era or Cold War facility construction, in older commercial office buildings for recruiting duty, or aboard older Navy ships and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.