Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, LSM-202 - construction, service, specifications, disposal [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/14/14202.htm header/service block and specifications block
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull: laid down 5 January 1944 at Dravo Corporation, Wilmington, DE; launched 15 March 1944; commissioned USS LSM-202, 1 May 1944, LT. David Thurlow, USNR, in command. Assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater as part of LSM Flotilla Five, LSM Group Fourteen, LSM Division Twenty-Seven. Participated in the 'Assault and occupation of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 February 1945,' earning one battle star for WWII service. Second commanding officer LTjg. Frank O. Hood, USNR (September 1945 - 19 November 1945). Decommissioned 19 November 1945; struck from the Naval Register in 1946; 'sold in June 1946, to Northwest Merchandizing Service, Seattle, WA., fate unknown.' Spec block: displacement 520 t. (light), 743 t. (landing), 1,095 t. (fully loaded); length 203'6" (ovl); beam 34'6"; draft (light) 3'6" fwd/7'8" aft, (loaded) 6'4" fwd/8'3" aft; speed 13.2 kts (max.); propulsion two Fairbanks Morse (model 38D8-1/8 x 10, reversible with hydraulic clutch) diesel engines, 1,440 BHP each @ 720 rpm, twin propellers, 2,800 shp; armament one twin bow-mounted 40mm gun, four single 20mm gun mounts; complement 5 officers, 54 enlisted; cargo capacity 5 medium or 3 heavy tanks, or 6 LVTs, or 9 DUKWs.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Dravo Corporation construction trades (1944); LSM-202 crew (1944-45)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry. No individual DANFS entry for LSM-202 could be located or verified this session - history.navy.mil was unreachable (ECONNREFUSED) for all candidate DANFS URLs, and LSM hull numbers generally do not receive individual DANFS treatment the way named/larger combatants do. A second ship-history database (uboat.net) corroborates identity but gives minor date variants for commissioning and striking - see ev-03 and gaps. Contains no asbestos or material content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-01
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[2]Naval History and Heritage Command, Online Library of Selected Images - official U.S. Navy/USMC photograph caption, Iwo Jima invasion beach, 20 February 1945 (mirrored via ibiblio.org/hyperwar; live history.navy.mil photography pages were unreachable this session) [other_primary]
- Locator
- ibiblio hyperwar c109604c.htm caption text
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official U.S. Navy/Marine Corps photography places this hull at Iwo Jima: 'Marine dead, wrecked vehicles and swamped landing craft on an Iwo Jima invasion beach, 20 February 1945, the day after the initial landings... USS LSM-202 is in the left center background... Photographed by Hulstay, Fifth Marine Division.' This independently corroborates NavSource's dated Iwo Jima operation window (19-26 February 1945) with an officially-sourced image record.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945-02-20
- Limitations
- Places the hull in the background of one officially-captioned photograph on one specific date (20 Feb 1945); does not itself narrate her full operational role, beaching location, or any wounded-evacuation detail. A 'Red Beach'/wounded-evacuation claim circulating on a non-authoritative secondary site could not be corroborated this session (site unreachable, no archive snapshot) and is NOT carried in this record - see gaps. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-02
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[3]uboat.net, Allied Warships, LSM-202 [other_primary]
- Locator
- uboat.net ship detail page 12801
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Independent secondary ship-history database corroborates builder (Dravo Corp., Wilmington, DE) and launch date (15 March 1944), and adds an ordering date not found on NavSource: 'Ordered 6 Oct 1943.' However it gives commissioning as 30 April 1944 (vs. NavSource's 1 May 1944) and a precise strike date of 5 December 1945 (vs. NavSource's 'struck ... in 1946') - both date variants are unresolved.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Limitations
- Volunteer-compiled secondary database, not a primary registry; used here only to cross-check and surface date variants, not as the controlling source for any field. The page itself notes no commanding officers are listed in its database for this hull, reflecting incomplete sourcing on its end. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-03
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[4]Era inference built on: NavSource specifications (two Fairbanks Morse diesel engines, no steam plant); GAO HRD-80-2 (Navy-wide asbestos insulation use through the early 1970s, see ev-05); Corn & Starr 1987, American Journal of Industrial Medicine (WWII U.S. shipbuilding asbestos use generally, see ev-06) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block; GAO HRD-80-2; Corn & Starr 1987 AJIM 11(3):359-373
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A diesel-powered Landing Ship, Medium built in 1944 at a WWII emergency shipyard sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era. Era-standard applications aboard a diesel-propelled amphibious hull of this size and period were engine-room and exhaust-system lagging, gaskets, valve packing, and insulation in berthing/control spaces. As a diesel-only vessel she carried no steam plant - the boiler/turbine lagging pathway of larger combatants and merchant steamers does not apply - but WWII-era diesel engine rooms and exhaust runs commonly used asbestos-containing lagging and gasket/packing material.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Dravo Corporation construction trades (1944); LSM-202 crew (1944-45)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for LSM-202. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity, no manufacturer attribution for this hull. No yard-specific government asbestos survey exists for Dravo Corp., Wilmington, DE, in the public record searched this session (see ev-05 search_ledger and gaps) - unlike some other WWII-era builders, Dravo's Wilmington yard does not appear in NIOSH's HHE database, likely because its shipbuilding-era workforce and this hull's own service both ended by 1946, well before NIOSH's 1970s-80s survey era.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-04
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[5]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2, scope and findings summary
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented that the Navy used asbestos insulation extensively aboard ships and initially followed a reactive 1975 policy of removing/replacing 'only insulation that was damaged or had to be removed to accomplish necessary repairs,' modified in 1979 to 'selectively replac[e] asbestos insulation in high-maintenance areas where repairs would be expected during a ship's next operating cycle.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation of Navy-wide asbestos policy, reviewed at Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards in 1979 - more than three decades after this hull's 1946 disposal and never a yard LSM-202 passed through. Supports era/program context only; does not name this hull, its builder, or any work performed on her. Full text/product page loaded directly this session (gao.gov accessible, unlike the HTTP 403 reported in other batch sessions).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-05
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[6]Corn, Jacqueline Karnell, and Jennifer Starr, 'Historical perspective on asbestos: Policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding,' American Journal of Industrial Medicine 11(3):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Abstract and article, AJIM 11(3):359-373
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed historical study documents that asbestos was used extensively as a fireproofing and insulating material in U.S. shipbuilding during WWII - the era and wartime program under which this diesel landing ship was built (1944) - and that wartime demand drove unprecedented asbestos utilization aboard naval and merchant-type hulls alike.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1940s era documented; article published 1987
- Population
- WWII shipyard workers and ship crews (class context)
- Limitations
- Program/era-level scholarly documentation of asbestos use in WWII shipbuilding generally; does not name this vessel, its builder, or establish that asbestos was or remains aboard this specific hull, nor quantity, location, condition, exposure, or causation.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-06
-
[7]CourtListener API v4 searches (this session): type=o (opinion) queries "LSM-202", "\"USS LSM-202\"", "\"LSM-202\" asbestos", "\"LSM 202\" asbestos"; type=r (docket/RECAP) query "LSM-202" [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-05 through -09 (CourtListener)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos litigation located. The bare query "LSM-202" returned 25 opinions, all name collisions with the unrelated entity 'L.S.M. General Contractors, Inc.' or unrelated party/case matches (e.g., Logan-Baldwin v. L.S.M. General Contractors; Catlett v. United States Postal Service; Doninger v. Niehoff) - none referencing this vessel. Exact-phrase query "USS LSM-202" returned 0 results; "LSM-202" asbestos and "LSM 202" asbestos each returned 0 results; a docket/RECAP search for "LSM-202" returned 0 results. No asbestos survey, abatement contract, or hazmat disclosure for this hull was found in the public sources searched.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 2026-10-01
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard or absence of litigation - only that no qualifying result surfaced in these specific queries this session. Does not establish or defeat any exposure claim or legal eligibility. A 1944-built, 1946-disposed hull identified only by a numeric hull designation is intrinsically difficult to search; broader free-text docket search beyond these queries was not attempted.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-202-lsm202-07