Navy Storekeeper (SK) Rating: Asbestos Exposure in Shipboard Storerooms and Supply Spaces

If you served as a Navy Storekeeper (SK) and you’ve just received a mesothelioma or asbestosis diagnosis, your DD-214 may be worth more than you realize. The SK rating required daily movement through below-decks compartments—pulling parts from insulated storerooms, transiting engineering spaces, handling gaskets, packing, and insulation materials that allegedly contained asbestos. Unlike boilermen or machinist’s mates, whose occupational asbestos exposure is well-documented in litigation, the SK rating’s hazard profile has been systematically underrecognized—even though the job may have placed Storekeepers in repeated contact with products manufactured by Johns-Manville, Owens Corning, Eagle-Picher, Garlock Sealing Technologies, and Armstrong World Industries.

Your service record—specifically DD-214 Block 11 (Primary Specialty)—documents the SK rating and supports both VA disability benefits and a concurrent federal civil lawsuit. You do not have to choose between them. This article explains where you worked, what you handled, and how to pursue both tracks before deadlines close.

Legal Framework: VA Benefits and Civil Lawsuits — Pursue Both Simultaneously

VA Presumptive Service Connection — No Statute of Limitations

Under 38 CFR § 3.309(d), mesothelioma is a presumptive service-connected disease for eligible veterans. There is no filing deadline. You may file a VA claim decades after discharge. There is no requirement to prove causation, identify a specific exposure event, or name a responsible manufacturer. The presumption applies automatically upon a qualifying diagnosis.

What the VA track provides:

Monthly tax-free disability compensation
Lump-sum disability payments
Dependent and survivor benefits
No causation burden — the presumption does the work

Federal Maritime Civil Lawsuit — 46 U.S.C. § 30106

Concurrent with your VA claim, you may file suit against asbestos manufacturers, distributors, and contractors who supplied materials to the Navy. The statute of limitations is three years from the date of diagnosis. That deadline is absolute. Missing it permanently forfeits your right to civil recovery.

What the civil track provides:

Compensatory damages for pain and suffering, lost wages, and medical expenses
Potential jury awards or settlements substantially larger than VA disability payments
Multiple defendants — manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers may all face liability
Federal maritime courts in Norfolk, Houston, Tacoma, Charleston, Jacksonville, and other jurisdictions have handled thousands of Navy asbestos cases

VA benefits and a civil lawsuit are non-exclusive. Filing one does not limit or offset the other. Veterans should pursue both simultaneously.

Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Funds — Depleting Assets, File Now

Manufacturers including Johns-Manville, Combustion Engineering, Babcock & Wilcox, W.R. Grace, Owens-Illinois, and others established bankruptcy trusts to compensate asbestos claimants. These funds are depleting. Trust administrators have already reduced per-claim payment percentages as reserves have shrunk, and that trend continues. Filing promptly preserves your position.

Nationwide Representation — No Geographic Restriction

VA claims are filed federally. Maritime asbestos litigation is governed by federal maritime law. Experienced maritime asbestos firms represent Navy veterans in all 50 states. You do not need a local attorney, and geography should not factor into your decision about whether to call. The attorneys who handle these cases have spent careers in federal maritime courts and VA claims processes — they know the SK rating, the ships, the manufacturers, and the products.

What Navy Storekeepers Actually Did

The SK rating was not a shoreside desk job that happened to be performed on a ship. Storekeepers were the logistical backbone of every commissioned vessel in the fleet. The job required:

Physically procuring, receiving, and storing repair parts and consumable supplies throughout the vessel
Fulfilling work orders from Machinist’s Mates, Boilermen, Damage Controlmen, and other engineering rates — often under time pressure during underway operations
Personally verifying stock in below-decks compartments, climbing into overhead storage spaces and descending into confined parts lockers multiple times daily
Transiting passageways running alongside and directly through engineering spaces insulated with Johns-Manville thermal products
Handling and issuing gaskets, packing materials, insulation block, and other maintenance materials stocked as routine inventory

A Storekeeper might make 20 to 30 transits per day through insulated compartments — each passage potentially disturbing settled particulate and resuspending asbestos fibers in poorly ventilated spaces. That cumulative daily exposure profile is what matters in both VA proceedings and civil litigation.

Where Storekeepers Worked — Spaces with Documented Asbestos Exposure Risk

The SK rating was not confined to a single compartment. Your duties reportedly required regular presence in the following spaces:

General storerooms and parts lockers — located throughout the ship, typically in below-decks compartments adjacent to or beneath engineering spaces where Kaylo and Thermobestos thermal insulation was applied to pipe systems. Many of these compartments were constructed with asbestos-containing deck tiles manufactured by Armstrong World Industries.

Aviation parts storerooms on carriers and amphibious vessels — adjacent to hot-zone machinery areas with extensive Aircell block insulation applied to turbine casings and auxiliary equipment. Overhead lagging in these spaces was reportedly deteriorating and friable, releasing fibers directly into storeroom air.

Supply offices and records spaces — typically on the main or second deck, where overhead steam lines were covered with Monokote thermal wrap and Cranite fire-resistant coatings. These spaces allegedly accumulated settled asbestos particulate on work surfaces and shelving through normal ventilation cycles.

Machinery spaces and engineering flats — entered regularly by Storekeepers delivering parts, verifying serial numbers on insulated turbines and auxiliary equipment, and responding to emergency requisitions during underway operations.

Damage control lockers — many damage control materials stocked and issued by SKs allegedly contained asbestos: repair blankets, insulating materials, and gaskets manufactured by Garlock and others, often without hazard labeling.

Shaft alleys and auxiliary machinery rooms — accessed during parts inventories and emergency requisitions. These confined spaces had minimal ventilation and extensive overhead lagging in advanced deterioration, with Unibestos, Kaylo, and Thermobestos products in direct contact with storeroom air.

Berthing areas adjacent to engineering spaces — Storekeepers delivered supplies through passageways lined with Unibestos and Superex pipe insulation, including spaces where friable overhead insulation was positioned directly above bunk structures.

The common thread across all of these spaces: overhead lagging and bulkhead insulation that was, in many documented cases, degraded, cracked, and visibly releasing particulate — particularly on vessels commissioned in the 1940s through 1960s where Johns-Manville and Owens-Illinois products had deteriorated over decades of thermal stress and vibration.

Asbestos-Containing Materials in Storerooms and Supply Spaces

Products Storekeepers Handled as Routine Stock

Naval vessels commissioned from the 1930s through the early 1980s were built with asbestos as the primary thermal and fire-resistant insulating material. Storekeepers may have been exposed to the following products:

Pipe lagging and thermal insulation — Kaylo, Thermobestos, Aircell, and Monokote were reportedly applied to virtually all high-temperature piping systems throughout the fleet. These products were installed with an expected service life that guaranteed deterioration and fiber release within 20 to 30 years.

Gaskets and packing materials — stocked in parts lockers and issued regularly to engineering crews, many reportedly manufactured with compressed chrysotile or amosite asbestos by Garlock Sealing Technologies, often without hazard warnings to enlisted personnel handling them.

Insulating block and blankets — Johns-Manville and Combustion Engineering products applied to boiler and turbine casings adjacent to supply spaces. Storekeepers reportedly handled replacement blocks during maintenance supply operations without respiratory protection.

Deck tiles and floor coverings — vinyl-asbestos composite materials in supply offices and storerooms manufactured by Armstrong World Industries and Georgia-Pacific under trade names including Gold Bond.

Firebrick and refractory materials — stocked for issue to repair divisions during boiler maintenance, many containing asbestos fiber at 20 to 60 percent by weight.

Valve and flange insulation — Unibestos was reportedly applied to virtually all major steam isolation points throughout the fleet. When valves required replacement, Storekeepers retrieved asbestos-wrapped components from inventory.

Rope and cord packing — manufactured with asbestos yarn by Garlock and others, stocked as consumable supplies and issued without respiratory protection or hazard labeling.

Spray-on fireproofing — Monokote and similar spray-applied thermal barriers were applied to structural members and bulkheads adjacent to storage areas. Deteriorating residue from these products allegedly fell into storeroom air continuously.

The Storekeeper’s Specific Handling Exposure

Storekeepers did not encounter these materials incidentally. They counted, inspected, and issued Garlock gaskets, Superex packing, and other asbestos-containing maintenance materials as routine stock items — without respiratory protection or hazard warnings. They handled dusty boxes of Kaylo insulation block and Thermobestos thermal wrapping stored in damp, poorly ventilated compartments below the waterline. They worked in enclosed spaces where asbestos particulate from deteriorating pipe lagging had settled on shelving and work surfaces, resuspending fibers with every inventory cycle. Manufacturers of these products reportedly knew by the 1940s that asbestos inhalation caused fatal disease — and that knowledge was allegedly withheld from the sailors who handled their products daily.

Ships Where Navy Storekeepers Served

The SK rating was assigned across virtually every vessel class in the U.S. Fleet. Documented exposure risk is associated with the following platforms:

Aircraft carriers (CV/CVN) — USS Forrestal (CV-59), USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), USS Enterprise (CVN-65), USS Nimitz (CVN-68) — massive vessels with extensive below-decks supply networks and thermal insulation throughout aviation support spaces, machinery rooms, and berthing compartments.

Destroyers and destroyer escorts (DD/DE/DDG) — USS Fletcher (DD-445), USS Gearing (DD-710), USS Forrest Sherman (DD-931), USS Spruance (DD-963) — smaller vessels where storerooms were in close proximity to main propulsion and auxiliary engineering spaces, with concentrated asbestos applications in minimal square footage.

Cruisers (CA/CG/CLG) — USS Newport News (CA-148), USS Chicago (CG-11), USS Long Beach (CGN-9) — heavy combatants with steam propulsion plants requiring extensive insulated piping throughout supply-accessible spaces.

Amphibious assault ships (LHA/LHD/LPH) — USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2), USS Tarawa (LHA-1), USS Wasp (LHD-1) — large-deck vessels with aviation and ground force supply requirements generating high SK activity in insulated below-decks compartments.

Submarine tenders and destroyer tenders (AS/AD) — USS Dixie (AD-14), USS Puget Sound (AD-38), USS Dixon (AS-37) — tender vessels had disproportionately large supply departments and extensive insulated repair facility spaces where SKs worked daily.

Oilers and combat stores ships (AO/AFS) — USS Cimarron (AO-22), USS Sacramento (AOE-1) — replenishment vessels with substantial supply departments and insulated machinery spaces.

Diseases Linked to Asbestos Exposure

The latency period for asbestos-related disease typically runs 20 to 50 years after initial exposure. Navy Storekeepers who served on ships commissioned through the early 1980s may now be in the primary risk window. Diagnoses to discuss with your physician include:

Mesothelioma (pleural, peritoneal, pericardial) — the signature asbestos cancer; VA presumptive under 38 CFR § 3.309(d)
**