Yeomen (YN) served as the Navy’s administrative and clerical specialists, handling personnel records, correspondence, and command administrative functions across all ship and shore billets. Though Yeomen were not assigned to engineering watches and did not have routine engineering space duties, their shipboard service placed them in vessels constructed entirely with asbestos-containing materials in all interior spaces, including the berthing, administrative office spaces, and working areas where Yeomen spent their working hours.

Shipboard Asbestos Exposure for Non-Engineering Ratings

Navy ships built before the mid-1970s asbestos phase-down used asbestos-containing materials in all interior construction — not only in engineering spaces but throughout every inhabited space in the hull:

  • Berthing compartments where all shipboard personnel including Yeomen lived used asbestos floor tile, overhead lagging, and bulkhead insulation in the standard interior construction specification of the era
  • Administrative office spaces aboard ship — where Yeomen stood their working watches handling command paperwork — were built with the same asbestos-containing interior construction materials as the rest of the ship
  • Galley, mess decks, and passageways where all crew moved throughout the ship used asbestos floor tile and overhead construction throughout the pre-1975 vessel interior
  • Shipyard availability periods placed all crew including administrative ratings in proximity to ongoing insulation work in which insulators stripped and replaced asbestos insulation aboard ship

Shore Station Administrative Buildings

Yeomen assigned to shore commands — fleet staffs, naval stations, naval air stations, and naval training commands — worked in older government office buildings with asbestos-containing materials in their mechanical infrastructure:

  • Steam heating systems in older naval shore installations used asbestos-insulated pipe in boiler rooms and building heating distribution systems where maintenance could disturb asbestos insulation
  • Older building renovation and maintenance at shore commands involved disturbance of asbestos-containing materials in flooring, ceilings, and building mechanical systems
  • Administrative buildings on naval installations built during WWII and the postwar era used asbestos-containing materials in construction that remained undisturbed until building renovation or demolition projects

Cumulative Exposure Through Multiple Shipboard Billets

Yeomen who served in multiple shipboard billets over a Navy career accumulated asbestos exposure across each vessel assignment. A Yeoman serving successive tours aboard different ships built with asbestos-containing construction — an Essex class carrier in the 1960s, a guided missile cruiser in the 1970s — accumulated exposure from the asbestos-containing interiors of each vessel, even without engineering space assignments.

VA Claims for YN Rating Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure for Navy veterans who served aboard ships or at shore facilities with documented asbestos. Yeomen who served aboard vessels 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 based on the general asbestos exposure present throughout Navy ship interiors.