Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
-
[1]research packet kq-packet.md (9 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED — real identity: USS Dufilho
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-dufilho-de423-pkt-kq-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Dufilho (DE-423) 1944-1972, revised online entry by Mark L. Evans, NHHC, published 2016-06-09 (live page 404s; 2026-01-13 Wayback capture read verbatim) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- NHHC DANFS 'Dufilho (DE-423)' revised entry (2016-06-09, Mark L. Evans), Wayback capture 2026-01-13; narrative + commanding-officer table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Revised DANFS record for this hull: laid down 31 January 1944 at Houston, Tex., by Brown Shipbuilding Co.; launched 9 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Betty W. Dufilho, widow of Lt. Dufilho; commissioned 21 July 1944, Cmdr. Albert H. Nienau, USNR. Yard work at Galveston; shakedown to Bermuda (15 Aug-9 Sep 1944); repairs at Boston Navy Yard (11-18 Sep); screened Vixen (PG-53) with Adm. Ingersoll embarked on an Atlantic/Caribbean base inspection with Douglas A. Munro (DE-422) (18 Sep-19 Oct); escorted Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) to Casablanca (24 Oct-2 Nov); drydock overhaul at New York Navy Yard (14 Nov-3 Dec); Pacific transit via the Panama Canal (14 Dec) arriving Manus 15 Jan 1945. Lingayen Gulf reinforcement convoy escort; TU 78.9.4 San Bernardino-Verde Islands minesweeping escort; 'Ping Line' antisubmarine patrols out of Subic Bay (probable submarine contact 18 Mar, unconfirmed postwar); Borneo operations (Tarakan, Brunei Bay, TG 78.1/TU 78.1.19) through 5 Jul 1945; joined the Indianapolis (CA-35) survivor rescue 3-5 Aug 1945 (recovered one survivor, S2 Frank Rincay, transferred to Register APD-92); Okinawa convoys; 'Warship Row' Shanghai 22 Sep 1945; Hong Kong mail/freight runs ('South China Courier'); San Diego 12 Feb 1946; out of commission in reserve with the Nineteenth Fleet 14 May 1946; berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, San Diego; stricken 1 December 1972; sold for scrapping by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service 1 August 1973; towed 2 October 1973 with ex-Dennis (DE-405) by tug Pacific Ranger to National Metal & Steel Corp., Terminal Island, Calif., and scrapped. One battle star; Navy Occupation Service Medal (dual eligibility 2 Sep 1945-6 Jan 1946). CO table: Cmdr. Albert H. Nienau (21 Jul 1944), Lt. Oliver K. Brooks (16 Dec 1945), Lt. Cmdr. Percy A. Lilly Jr. (27 Dec 1945).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1973
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades 1944; wartime crew 1944-46 (design complement ~186-222, sources vary - see gaps); reserve-fleet maintenance personnel 1946-72; breakers' yard workers 1973
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, service history, and disposal chain - not materials or asbestos content. The revised entry supersedes the print entry on several details (sponsor given as 'Mrs. Betty W. Dufilho'; adds the keel date the print entry lacks). Live NHHC page 404s at access date - Wayback capture cited.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-01
-
[3]DANFS, Dufilho (DE-423) print-era entry (verbatim HyperWar/ibiblio transcription): specifications block and namesake/service narrative [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS print transcription, ibiblio HyperWar mirror, specifications block + namesake paragraph + service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Print-era DANFS record for this hull: namesake biography (Marion William Dufilho, born 22 May 1916 Opelousas, La.; USNA 2 June 1938; VF-5 section leader in Saratoga CV-3; KIA 24 August 1942 Battle of the Eastern Solomons; posthumous Navy Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross); spec block dp. 1,350, l. 306', b. 36'8", dr. 9'5", s. 24 k., cpl. 186, a. 2x5", 3x21" tt., 8 dcp., 1 dcp. (hh.), 2 dct.; launched 9 March 1944 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston (sponsor 'Mrs. M.W. Dufilho'); commissioned 21 July 1944, Commander A.H. Nienau USNR; the same operational narrative through placement out of commission in reserve 14 May 1946. The print spec block's class label reads 'cl. John C. Buckley' - a source typo conflating the John C. Butler and Buckley classes; the NVR class field ('DE 339', the John C. Butler lead hull) and the revised DANFS entry confirm John C. Butler class.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades 1944; wartime crew (design complement 186 per this block)
- Limitations
- Print transcription predates striking - contains no stricken/disposal dates and no keel-laying date; the 'John C. Buckley' class label is a documented source error corrected by the NVR record; sponsor name differs from the revised entry ('Mrs. M.W.' vs 'Mrs. Betty W.' - the widow's married-name vs given-name rendering). DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-02
-
[4]Naval Vessel Register detail page, DUFILHO (DE 423) (2017-01-09 Wayback capture; live NVR detail page redirects to the NVR home shell - pre-1987 disposals out of live coverage) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NVR ship-detail page DE 423, status block + milestone dates block (Wayback capture)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official register record for this hull: UIC 53423; class 'DE 339' (the John C. Butler lead hull designation); type 'ESCORT SHIP'; Status 'Disposed of, by Navy Sale' with 'Date status changed 08/01/1973'; Commission Date 07/21/1944; Decommission Date 05/14/1946; Stricken Date 12/01/1972; 'Years from Commission to Decommission: 2.0'. Keel and launch date fields blank on the register.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1973
- Limitations
- Register milestone record only - no keel/launch dates, builder, or dimensional data populated for this pre-1987 disposal; 'Date status changed' (08/01/1973) is the effective disposal date, not a hull-transfer date - secondary compilations give the physical sale/transfer as 12 September 1973 (NavSource; uboat.net) and the tow to the breaker as 2 October 1973 (revised DANFS). No asbestos or material data of any kind in the register.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-03
-
[5]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 1 (Jan 1945), DE design-group 6 (WGT) table row (shipscribe.com scan), with the John C. Butler-class profile boiler-block map (navypedia compilation); class litigation surface per Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec (see ev-09) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945v1 design-group 6 row; navypedia us_de_tev_wgt block map; Jack v. Borg-Warner exhibit list (ECF 738-1) document identifications; john-c-butler-class.class.json (worktree class-f)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference for this hull's plant: BuShips design group 6 (WGT) - 306 ft oa, 1,350 t standard, 24.3 kt, two 'D' express boilers at 435 psi/750 deg F, two Westinghouse geared steam turbines, 12,000 shp, 2 shafts, accommodations 15 officers/207 enlisted; the class boiler-block map assigns Combustion Engineering boilers to DE-402 through DE-424 (this hull's block). A wartime steam plant of this era would have carried period-standard asbestos insulation, lagging, gaskets, packing, and fireproofing - and DE-era litigation materials identify the controlling Navy insulation specs (NAVSHIPS 250-000(39) ch. 39 'Thermal Insulation' Aug 1945; Navy Dept spec 32F3a 'Felt, Insulating, Asbestos' Oct 1945; BuEng ch. 13) as the era's document suite.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades Jan-Jul 1944; crew Jul 1944-May 1946
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no ship-specific material schedule, survey, or contract document for DE-423 was located. The block map is a secondary compilation (unverified against contract documents); the spec suite was identified via a litigation exhibit list, not retrieved. Establishes no quantity and no individual exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-04
-
[6]Robert H. Peebles, 'Shipbuilding,' Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association (rev. 2017-11-23) [other_primary]
- Locator
- TSHA Handbook of Texas Online, 'Shipbuilding' entry, WWII paragraph
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Builder-yard context: the TSHA Handbook documents Brown Shipbuilding Corporation of Houston among the Texas WWII escort-vessel builders - '$100 million in contracts previously awarded to the Todd-Galveston Shipbuilding Corporation and the Brown Shipbuilding Corporation of Houston for building large escort vessels,' with $200 million supplemental contracts in August 1942; Houston-area yards ran two ten-hour shifts from early 1942 and sixty-six ships had been launched at Houston by July 1943. Brown Shipbuilding was the Brown & Root subsidiary at Greens Bayou on the Houston Ship Channel that built this hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1941-1945
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding workforce (WWII Houston yard)
- Limitations
- Yard-level context only - documents the builder's existence, location, and Navy escort-vessel contracts; says nothing about asbestos use, industrial hygiene, or materials aboard any hull. Brown Shipbuilding is absent from the Atlas shipyards.json dataset (37 yards) - carried in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-05
-
[7]NARA record groups implicated by this hull (RG 24 deck logs; RG 38 WWII war diaries/ship histories; RG 19 BuShips contract plans and Booklet of General Plans; DRMS disposal file) - locations identified, not retrieved [other_primary]
- Locator
- NARA RG 24/RG 38/RG 19 series descriptions (catalog.archives.gov, e.g. NAID series for WWII war diaries); NavSource DE-423 page 'official War History' link text
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads for hull-level material or exposure records: (1) ship's WWII war diary/official war history - NavSource confirms the ship submitted an official war history at war's end, and the revised DANFS entry quotes it verbatim throughout ('her historian wryly noted...'); WWII war diaries are RG 38 'World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories' at NARA College Park; (2) deck logs for DE-423, Jul 1944-May 1946 (RG 24); (3) BuShips records for the hull incl. contract plans and the class Booklet of General Plans (RG 19) - the most promising lead for any insulation or materials schedule; (4) the Navy insulation-specification suite identified in the class's litigation record (BuShips Manual ch. 39 NAVSHIPS 250-000(39); spec 32F3a 'Felt, Insulating, Asbestos' Oct 1945; BuEng ch. 13); (5) Pacific Reserve Fleet / Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility San Diego inactivation records (1946-72); (6) the DRMS sale file for the 1973 disposal - the most promising disposal-era hazmat lead.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1973 (record coverage); 2026-09-28 (search)
- Limitations
- Leads only - none of these records was retrieved this session; NARA catalog is JS-gated to automated queries. Existence of the war diary is inferred from NavSource's link text and DANFS's verbatim quotations of the ship's historian; hull-level material content is unknown until the records are pulled.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-06
-
[8]CourtListener API v4 authenticated sweep (fleet-paced via cl-auth-search.py): "USS Dufilho" - 0 opinion hits, 0 docket hits; "Dufilho" - 113 opinion hits and 17 docket hits, all name collisions; "DE-423" - 10 opinion hits and 118 docket hits, all numeric noise [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener API v4 search type=o and type=r, queries "USS Dufilho" / "Dufilho" / "DE-423" (2026-09-28); page-1 result sets reviewed in full
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener sweep produced no qualifying litigation naming this hull. Exact-name queries "USS Dufilho" returned zero opinions and zero dockets. Bare-name "Dufilho" hits are surname collisions: Louisiana party-name cases back to 1839 (Harmon v. Dufilho, La. App. 1932; Dufilho v. Bordelon, La. 1922; Lafitte, Dufilho & Co. v. Godchaux, La. 1883; et al.), attorney-of-record matches (A. Michael Dufilho of Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips appears as defense counsel in Prater v. Babcock & Wilcox, La. App. 1982 - a non-asbestos tort case - and Great American Ins. v. Swift, M.D. La. 1984, and Yeomans v. Le Triomphe, 5th Cir. 1989), a criminal defendant (United States v. Adkinson, 11th Cir. 1998, 135 F.3d 1363 and 158 F.3d 1147), bankruptcy debtors (Louis Eugene and Shirley Ann Dufilho, E.D. Va. Bankr. 92-20185), and creditor/claimant-list appearances in mega-bankruptcy dockets (Motors Liquidation Co. S.D.N.Y. 09-50026 - asbestos-adjacent GM bankruptcy but matched on a claimant surname, not the vessel; Winn-Dixie, Claire's, KServicing, At Home, RTI, Garden Oaks). Hull-number "DE-423" hits are numeric noise - document/exhibit/paragraph numbering in unrelated bankruptcy, criminal, and civil dockets; reviewed pages show no vessel or asbestos context. An indexed-web check of CourtListener surfaced the same surname family (La. App. vol. 19 Harmon v. Dufilho; La. Ann. vol. 21 Lafitte, Dufilhoe & Co. v. Perkins 1869).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28 (sweep); underlying dockets 1839-2025
- Population
- No DE-423 litigation population located
- Limitations
- Absence of a docketed case on the indexed corpus does not prove no DE-423 crewmember ever filed a claim - crew-era asbestos suits may exist on PACER or in state courts outside CourtListener's indexed corpus, and MDL-875 transferred dockets are thinly indexed. All name matches classified as collisions, none promoted to vessel evidence.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-07
-
[9]Batch-4325 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS revised entry via Wayback + ibiblio print transcription; NVR via Wayback; BuShips Ships' Data 1945 v1; TSHA Handbook; NavSource; CourtListener API v4 (opinion + docket indexes); VA BVA index; Atlas shipyards.json (37 yards) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-dufilho-de423-01 through -14
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located for DE-423 on completed surfaces: no hull survey, no abatement contract, no insulation schedule, no hazmat disclosure, no VA BVA decision, and no qualifying asbestos case names the vessel (CourtListener sweep - ev-07). The hull's record profile is thin for the usual ship-specific record types - a short commissioned life (Jul 1944-May 1946), no postwar recommissioning, 26 years in reserve, and routine DRMS disposal with commercial breaking in 1973.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard at construction - era inference for a 1944 WGT steam plant remains reasonable but unproven for this hull, and scrapping in 1973 forecloses present-day survey. Does not establish or defeat any individual claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-08
-
[10]Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec LLC, W.D. Wash. No. 2:17-cv-00537 - pretrial materials and exhibit list (ECF 738 att. 1) naming sister hull USS Brannon (DE-446) [court_record]
- Locator
- W.D. Wash. 2:17-cv-00537, ECF 738 att. 1 pp. 12, 26-27 + exhibit list
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Class-context litigation record: pretrial materials in Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec name USS Brannon (DE-446, a John C. Butler-class sister) and recite that 'Griscom-Russell supplied the Navy with the evaporator on Mr. Jack's ship in conformity to detailed precise specifications... without insulation,' with proposed testimony that 'asbestos was a critical material during WWII when the Navy installed the distiller on Mr. Jack's ship' while conceding 'on the USS BRANNON this could have included fiberglass, mineral wool or other non-asbestos insulation.' The same docket's exhibit list identifies the controlling Navy insulation-specification suite (BuShips Manual ch. 39 'Thermal Insulation' NAVSHIPS 250-000(39) (Aug 1945); Navy Dept spec 32F3a 'Felt, Insulating, Asbestos' (Oct 1945); BuEng ch. 13).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- Litigation 2017-2019; WWII-era construction period referenced
- Population
- Machinist's mate aboard USS Brannon DE-446 (sister hull context)
- Limitations
- Concerns sister hull DE-446, not DE-423; pretrial/exhibit-list recital, not adjudicated fact; the document itself concedes non-asbestos insulation was possible aboard the sister ship. Included to show the class's litigation surface and the insulation-spec theory - establishes nothing about materials aboard DE-423.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dufilho-de423-09