Midway Class Aircraft Carriers (CV-41, CV-42, CV-43) — Asbestos in WWII-Era Carriers

The Midway class aircraft carriers — USS Midway (CV-41), USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42), and USS Coral Sea (CV-43) — were commissioned between 1945 and 1947 as the largest US Navy carriers built during World War II. Designed to operate beyond the Panama Canal locks (which limited Essex class beam), the Midway class was built at Newport News Shipbuilding (CV-41, CV-43) and New York Naval Shipyard (CV-42) using twelve Babcock & Wilcox boilers driving four Westinghouse steam turbine sets generating 212,000 shaft horsepower. Their steam plants — twelve boilers in four firerooms with four engine rooms — required asbestos insulation throughout the engineering spaces in the same pattern as other WWII-era carrier construction, but at a larger scale commensurate with the class’s greater size and power plant.

Twelve-Boiler Steam Plant and Asbestos

The Midway class engineering plant’s twelve-boiler configuration required asbestos insulation in larger quantities than the eight-boiler Essex class:

• Twelve B&W boilers in four firerooms with asbestos block, sectional covering, and cement insulation on boiler casings, steam drums, superheater sections, and uptake connections throughout the multiple fireroom spaces
• Four Westinghouse steam turbine sets with asbestos block insulation on turbine casings, exhaust connections, and gland steam piping in the engine rooms
• Main steam distribution piping from the firerooms to the engine rooms covered with asbestos block insulation and lagging cloth at expansion joints throughout the carrier’s engineering spaces
• Auxiliary steam systems serving the carrier’s hotel loads — aviation fuel heating, laundry, galley, and domestic water — using asbestos-insulated pipe throughout the ship’s interior

Multiple Modernizations and Continued Asbestos Exposure

The Midway class underwent extensive postwar modernizations that extended their service lives into the Cold War era while retaining the original WWII-era steam propulsion plants:

• SCB-110 and SCB-110A modernizations in the 1950s and 1960s added angled flight decks, enclosed hurricane bows, and updated catapult systems without replacing the original propulsion plant or its asbestos insulation
• Project 60 modernization of USS Midway in the early 1970s involved extensive shipyard work in which insulators stripped and replaced aging asbestos insulation in engineering spaces, creating fiber exposure during the overhaul periods
• All three hulls served through Vietnam-era operations and Cold War deployments with original 1940s-era asbestos insulation aging and becoming increasingly friable

USS Midway — The Longest-Serving Carrier

USS Midway (CV-41) holds the record as the longest-serving US Navy carrier in the 20th century, remaining in active service from 1945 until 1992 — a 47-year career during which multiple crews served aboard with the original and partially replaced WWII-era asbestos insulation. Sailors who served aboard Midway at any point in her career were present in engineering spaces with asbestos-containing materials.

VA Claims for Midway Class Veterans

VA evaluates asbestos-related disability claims on a case-by-case basis. Veterans generally need evidence of in-service asbestos exposure, a current asbestos-related diagnosis, and a medical link between them. Veterans who served aboard USS Midway (CV-41), USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42), or USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits. DD-214 records identifying CV-41, CV-42, or CV-43 as a duty station document the qualifying assignment.

Source notes: equipment-manifest entries (where shown) are sourced from public-record BUSHIPS (Bureau of Ships) documentation, NARA archives, and the public asbestos litigation record. Manufacturer attributions link to documented asbestos-product histories on AsbestosIndex.com where available. Nothing on this page constitutes medical or legal advice.