Radiomen (RM) served as the Navy’s radio communications specialists, operating high-frequency, UHF, and satellite communications equipment aboard ships and at shore-based naval communications stations. Radiomen worked primarily in the radio room — a dedicated communications space aboard ship — and at communications equipment positions in Combat Information Center (CIC) on larger vessels. Their billets placed them in the general asbestos-containing interior of pre-1975 Navy ships and, for shore-based RMs, in older communications facility buildings with asbestos in building infrastructure.

Shipboard Radio Room Environment

The radio room on pre-1975 destroyers, cruisers, and auxiliaries was built within the ship’s asbestos-containing hull with the same interior construction materials as all other shipboard spaces:

  • Radio room interior construction used asbestos floor tile, overhead lagging, and bulkhead insulation as standard materials throughout the ship’s interior in pre-1975 Navy vessels — the radio room was no exception
  • Cable penetrations and overhead routing through the radio room overhead involved cable tray runs through spaces where asbestos-containing overhead lagging was present
  • Crew berthing and ship’s general interior where all crew including Radiomen lived was built with asbestos-containing materials throughout the pre-1975 vessel hull

High-Power Radio Transmitter Exposure

Some Radiomen aboard larger vessels or at shore communications stations maintained high-power radio transmitter equipment in separate transmitter rooms where high-temperature components were present:

  • High-power transmitter spaces with high-temperature vacuum tube and power supply components used asbestos-containing thermal insulation on heat-generating transmitter components in some older transmitter designs
  • Shore transmitting station facilities at naval communications stations used asbestos in the building mechanical systems serving transmitter buildings

Radiomen assigned to Naval Communications Stations — NCS Harold Holt (Australia), NCS Nea Makri (Greece), NCS Stockton (California), NCS Cutler (Maine), and other shore-based HF and VLF communications facilities — worked in older government buildings with asbestos in building mechanical systems:

  • Older communications station buildings predating the 1970s used asbestos-containing materials in building construction and HVAC mechanical systems
  • Building renovation and maintenance at shore communications stations involved disturbance of asbestos-containing materials in facility infrastructure

VA Claims for RM Rating Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure for Navy veterans who served aboard vessels built before the mid-1970s asbestos phase-down or at shore facilities with documented asbestos. Radiomen who served aboard pre-1975 vessels and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.