Personnelmen — PNs — maintained Navy personnel records, prepared service record entries, processed personnel actions, and managed personnel administrative functions aboard Navy ships and at shore commands. PN billets placed these personnel in the ship’s personnel office — an administrative space in the ship’s interior — throughout the working day, in the same shipboard structure as all other ratings aboard vessels built with asbestos-containing materials in their construction.

Shipboard Personnel Office Environment

PNs working in shipboard personnel offices of surface ships built before the mid-1970s asbestos phase-down were in spaces with structural asbestos:

  • Administrative space overhead and bulkhead insulation — the personnel office and adjacent administrative spaces in carriers, cruisers, and destroyers built in the WWII through early 1970s period had asbestos-containing materials in overhead insulation, structural fire protection, and in the mechanical systems serving administrative compartments
  • Steam heating system piping — steam heating serving shipboard administrative and habitability spaces used asbestos-insulated steam supply piping running through bulkhead penetrations and overhead pipe runs adjacent to and through administrative compartments throughout the ship’s interior
  • Asbestos-containing construction materials — WWII and Cold War era ship interior construction used asbestos in deck tile, overhead lining materials, and insulation batts in crew habitability spaces throughout the ship, including the administrative and office spaces occupied by PNs

Shore Command Administrative Facilities

PNs at shore commands worked in older naval station and naval base administrative buildings:

  • Older naval administration buildings at major fleet concentration areas — NS Norfolk, NS San Diego, NAS Jacksonville, and other major installations — included WWII-era and 1950s-era administrative buildings with asbestos-containing construction materials in building mechanical systems, floor tile, and ceiling construction
  • Base administrative building steam heating — older naval installation administrative buildings used steam heating with asbestos-insulated pipe in base heating distribution systems serving the administrative building inventory

Carrier PN Billets and Ship’s Scale

Personnelmen aboard aircraft carriers managed personnel records for crew complements of 3,000-5,000 officers and enlisted personnel, with carrier personnel office billets requiring extensive use of the ship’s internal spaces for file transport and command coordination throughout the carrier:

  • Carrier PNs working throughout the carrier’s administrative spaces and moving between personnel office, executive department spaces, and other administrative areas traversed extensive portions of the ship’s interior on a daily basis — exposure not limited to a single compartment

VA Claims for PN Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure aboard Navy vessels. Personnelmen who served in personnel administration billets aboard surface ships built before the mid-1970s asbestos phase-down and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.