Evidence
9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).
-
[1]research packet fu-packet.md (3 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED (details mirror-sourced; primary DANFS slug 500)
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Limitations
- qualifier: VERIFIED (details mirror-sourced; primary DANFS slug 500)
- Evidence ID
- uss-butler-dd636-pkt-fu-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Butler I (DD-636) (builder, launch/commissioning, service narrative, DMS-29 conversion, 25 May 1945 damage, decommissioning and sale; live NHHC page serves 404 - Wayback capture of the official page cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'Butler (DD-636)' - spec block (dp. 1630; l. 348'2"; b. 36'1"; dr. 17'5"; s. 35 k.; cpl. 276; a. 4 5", 5 21" TT.; cl. Gleaves) + service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: launched 12 February 1942 by Philadelphia Navy Yard, sponsored by Mrs. John Wehle (daughter of the namesake, Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, USMC); commissioned 15 August 1942, Lt. Comdr. M. D. Matthews in command; Atlantic/Gulf escort work; escorted Free French vessels Richelieu and Montcalm to New York; Sicilian invasion 9 July-12 August 1943 incl. Gela bombardment; Normandy invasion 6 June-15 July 1944 (inshore fire support); escorted British escort carriers for southern France invasion 12-30 August 1944; conversion to high-speed minesweeper at New York from 27 October 1944, reclassified DMS-29 15 November, completed 21 December, joined Mine Squadron 20 at Norfolk; Pacific via San Diego/Pearl Harbor from 3 January 1945; pre-invasion sweep at Okinawa then screen and picket duty 24 March-25 May 1945; on 25 May bombs from a suicide plane exploded under her keel, killing nine men, blowing out steam lines and flooding the forward fireroom with loss of all steam and electric power, USS West Virginia (BB-48) standing by; temporary repairs at Kerama Retto; arrived in the United States 26 August 1945; decommissioned 8 November 1945; sold 10 January 1948; Navy Unit Commendation and four battle stars.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1941-1948
- Population
- Philadelphia Navy Yard construction trades 1941-42; wartime crew (design complement 276)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content. The entry does not state the keel-laying date (from NHHC Online Library, see ev-02) or the stricken date (from secondary sources - see gaps). Live NHHC page returns 404; Wayback capture of the official page cited. Conversion location given only as 'New York' - the Brooklyn Navy Yard archive's ship list confirms Butler passed through that yard (see ev-07), consistent with the conversion yard, but the listing carries no work scope.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-01
-
[3]NHHC Online Library of Selected Images, 'USS Butler (DD-636, later DMS-29), 1942-1948' and 'Construction, 1941-1942' (official Naval Historical Center pages, verbatim transcription on HyperWar/ibiblio) [other_primary]
- Locator
- ibiblio HyperWar mirror of Naval Historical Center Online Library: usnsh-b/dd636.htm (summary) + dd636-v.htm (construction narrative)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Naval Historical Center record for this hull: built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on a shipway immediately adjacent to sister USS Gherardi (DD-637); both laid down 16 September 1941 and launched 12 February 1942, Butler the 'elder of the twins' by minutes in a dual christening; commissioned 15 August 1942; escort work then Sicily (July 1943), Normandy (June 1944), and southern France (August 1944); conversion to high-speed minesweeper began late October 1944, redesignated DMS-29; Pacific from December 1944; Okinawa support from late March 1945 (minesweeping, anti-submarine screening, anti-aircraft picket); badly damaged by a suicide plane's bombs 25 May 1945; decommissioned November 1945 and stricken from the Navy list; sold for scrapping January 1948. Named for Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler (1881-1940), USMC.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1941-1948
- Population
- Philadelphia Navy Yard construction trades 1941-42; wartime crew
- Limitations
- Official photo-index narrative; documents construction and service facts, not materials or asbestos content. Gives no specific stricken date and no conversion-yard name. Contemporary construction photographs (19-N-39863/66/68, NH 99109-99112) document the hull but carry no materials analysis.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-02
-
[4]Robert J. Cressman, 'The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II,' Chapter VII (1945) - Naval Historical Center publication (verbatim transcription on HyperWar/ibiblio) [other_primary]
- Locator
- USN-Chron-1945.html, entries for 28 April and 25 May 1945 (Pacific sections)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official USN war chronology records this hull damaged by kamikaze twice off Okinawa: 28 April 1945 (26 deg 00'N, 127 deg 00'E) - a hit DANFS omits - and 25 May 1945 (26 deg 12'N, 127 deg 50'E), the disabling attack that ended her service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1945
- Population
- Wartime crew off Okinawa
- Limitations
- Confirms two separate kamikaze-damage events with positions; documents damage events only, not materials disturbed, repair scope, or asbestos content. DANFS narrates only the 25 May hit - the 28 April damage rests on this single official source.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-03
-
[5]DANFS-type specification block for DMS-29 (Ellyson-class fast minesweeper ex-Gleaves: 'High-pressure super-heated boilers, geared turbines with twin screws, 50,000 h.p.', complement 276) + Atlas shipyard dataset, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard record (tier-3 yard; asbestos products documented at the yard in appellate litigation covering 1941-1974) [other_primary]
- Locator
- HyperWar DMS-29 spec block; shipyards.json record 'philadelphia-naval-shipyard' (products_documented: Taylor/Junge/Gross appellate product IDs, 1941-1974 window)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/yard inference: a Gleaves-class destroyer built 1941-42 with four superheated boilers and geared turbines (50,000 shp, twin screws) would have carried period-standard asbestos insulation, steam-line lagging, gaskets and packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings; builder Philadelphia Naval Shipyard is a tier-3 yard in the Atlas dataset with named asbestos products (Baldwin-Ehret-Hill, Carey, Kaylo, Garlock gaskets/packing, Johns-Manville pipe insulation, others) documented at the yard in litigation records covering 1941-1974, a window containing this hull's construction. The 1944 DMS conversion and the 25 May 1945 steam-line rupture are documented events that would have disturbed whatever insulation existed, but its composition is not documented.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1941-1945
- Population
- Philadelphia Navy Yard construction trades 1941-42; conversion yard workers 1944; crew 1942-45
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - NOT a hull-specific finding. No insulation survey or materials list for DD-636 exists in the sources searched; yard product documentation is not evidence of installation aboard this specific hull. Does not quantify material or establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-04
-
[6]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 2 (January 1945), Mine Sweepers-High Speed (DMS) roster (shipscribe.com scan of the official BuShips publication) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945 Vol. 2, DMS roster, 'DMS29 BUTLER 3'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Contemporaneous official BuShips roster (January 1945) lists BUTLER at DMS-29 under class heading 3 - corroborating at the official-publication level that the reclassification and conversion were in effect in January 1945.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1945-01
- Limitations
- Roster listing only; documents the designation, not materials or asbestos content. Scanned transcription of the official publication via shipscribe.com.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-05
-
[7]Batch-3609 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS (Wayback capture); NHHC Online Library; Cressman official chronology; BuShips Ships' Data 1945 + War Damage Report No. 51; NVR; NPS; CourtListener name/hull sweeps; web search (secondary/tertiary surfaces excluded) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger sl-uss-butler-dd636-01 through -09
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No ship-specific asbestos record located for this hull: no survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or museum documentation exists for a hull scrapped in 1948, and no qualifying asbestos case naming DD-636/DMS-29 was located. BuShips War Damage Report No. 51 (destroyer gunfire/bomb/kamikaze damage, 1947) contains no Butler case history; a hull-level war damage report, if retained, is at NARA. A law-firm marketing page for 'USS Butler asbestos exposure' exists (mesotheliomahelp.org) - excluded per source policy.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - era insulation practice makes asbestos probable at the class level (see ev-04), but no source ties material to this hull. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-06
-
[8]Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation archive, 'Ships That Passed Through the Brooklyn Navy Yard' (official yard-archive list, August 2023) [museum_official]
- Locator
- Ships-at-the-Brooklyn-Navy-Yard.pdf, alphabetical list (p. entries under 'B')
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The Brooklyn Navy Yard's own archive lists USS Butler (DD-636), 'USA Destroyer 1942-1948', among ships that passed through the yard. DANFS records repeated New York yard periods for this hull (overhaul after the January 1943 Richelieu/Montcalm escort, post-Sicily overhaul, pre-Normandy overhaul, and the 27 October-21 December 1944 conversion to DMS-29); the BNY list is consistent with New York Navy Yard as the conversion facility.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1945
- Limitations
- The archive list confirms yard presence but carries no dates, work scope, or materials information; it does not prove which New York-period work occurred at Brooklyn Navy Yard versus other New York facilities, and says nothing about asbestos. Archival lead only - the yard work orders are the unresolved primary source.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-07
-
[9]CourtListener API v4 authenticated searches (exact ship name + hull designators) - PENDING, fleet pacing budget [court_record]
- Locator
- cl-auth-search.py exit 2 (fleet pacing budget spent) on all 9 spaced retries over ~95 min, 2026-09-27; queries never reached the API
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- PENDING: CourtListener sweeps for 'USS Butler', 'DD-636', and 'DMS-29' (opinion + docket indexes) could not be completed during the research window - the fleet-wide authenticated pacing budget was exhausted on every attempt (helper exit 2, 2026-09-27). Retries continue in this session; if the budget does not free, this row stands as a logged search gap and no litigation finding can be claimed either way.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Search incomplete at drafting time - no litigation finding, positive or negative, can be claimed. Retry required for complete coverage. 'Butler' is a high-collision name (common surname); any future hits require per-hit classification.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-butler-dd636-08