Evidence
6 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-6).
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[1]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LSM-469 (archives/10/14/14469.htm) - construction, commissioning, unit assignments, awards, occupation service dates, decommissioning, reserve-fleet lay-up, Thailand transfer, artificial-reef sinking; history extract credited to LSM-LSMR Amphibious Forces, Vol. II (Turner Publishing, 1997) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/14/14469.htm header block, awards table, specifications block, photo captions, commanding-officers table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource timeline for this hull: laid down 27 January 1945 at Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, TX; launched 17 February 1945; commissioned USS LSM-469 on 17 March 1945, Lt. Lee S. Barton USNR in command. WWII assignment: Asiatic-Pacific Theater, LSM Flotilla Fifteen, LSM Group Forty-Four, LSM Division Eighty-Nine. Post-war occupation service in the Far East 20 September 1945 to 11 April 1946. Awards: American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Medal. Decommissioned 29 August 1946 at Astoria, OR; laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group, Astoria; struck from the Naval Register (date unknown); transferred 25 May 1962 to Thailand, named HTMS Kram (L-3); renamed HTMS Khramto (L-732), date unknown; decommissioned by Thai Navy, date unknown; final disposition sunk as an artificial reef 1 February 2003 at Pattaya, Thailand. Photographic record: at Wakayama, Honshu, Japan, circa September and September-November 1945; underway as HTMS Khramto circa 1965 (official Royal Thai Navy photo) and 1969 (US Navy photo NH 96102, US Naval Historical Center collections); reef-sinking sequence at Pattaya 1 February 2003. One commanding officer listed: LT Lee S. Barton USNR (17 March 1945).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945-2003
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (Jan-Mar 1945); commissioning and wartime crew (5 officers + 54 enlisted per spec block); embarked troops (up to 2 officers + 46 enlisted); Royal Thai Navy crew (1962-c.2002); reef-preparation workers (2002-03)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - its milestone dates generally track official records but the struck date is explicitly 'unknown', the Thai rename and decommissioning dates are 'date unknown', and the 1962 transfer instrument (sale/loan/grant) is not described. Contains no asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-469-01
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[2]NHHC, 'The Navy's Happy Medium' (art exhibit page, Naval Amphibious Operations from WWII) - LSM type description [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- Page body text beneath exhibit image (accession 88-159-HN)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official NHHC description of the LSM type: the Navy needed a landing ship between the LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry) and the LST (Landing Ship, Tank) in size and displacement, and its designers produced 'the compact and maneuverable LSM (Landing Ship, Medium)' - the class to which this hull belonged.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- WWII (page context); accessed 2026-10-01
- Limitations
- Type-level description only - does not name this hull and contains no asbestos or construction-material content. Confirms class identity and design intent only.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-469-02
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[3]Era inference built on: NavSource specifications block for this hull (two Fairbanks-Morse 38D81/8X10 diesels, direct drive, twin screws - diesel ship, no steam plant); WWII mass-production amphibious construction era; GAO HRD-80-2 (see ev-uss-lsm-469-04) documenting Navy-wide asbestos insulation use aboard ships [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block; GAO HRD-80-2 product page
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A diesel-driven landing ship built January-March 1945 at Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, sits inside the era in which the Navy used asbestos insulation and materials aboard its ships. As a diesel vessel she carried no boilers or steam turbines - the boiler/turbine-lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply - but era-standard applications aboard a 1945 amphibious ship of this type were diesel-exhaust and machinery lagging, exhaust/flange gaskets, valve packing, electrical insulation, accommodation insulation board, deck covering compounds, and brake linings.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945-2003
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (Jan-Mar 1945); crew (1945-46); reserve-fleet maintenance personnel (1946-62); Royal Thai Navy crew and yard workers (1962-2002); reef-preparation workers (2002-03)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for LSM-469. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity. Product names are normalized era terms; no manufacturer attribution for this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-469-03
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[4]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979; publicly released Oct 22, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO HRD-80-2 product page, Highlights section
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO reviewed the Navy's efforts to protect workers from asbestos exposure at Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards, covering the use of asbestos in Navy ships, the cost of removing asbestos from Navy ships, and compensation programs for asbestos-related disabilities. The Navy's 1975 policy was to remove and replace with nonasbestos materials only damaged insulation or insulation that had to be removed for necessary repairs; in 1979 the policy was modified to selectively replace asbestos insulation in high-maintenance areas.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1979 (report); Navy asbestos-use era generally
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers (program-level context)
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation, not a hull record - GAO fieldwork yards were Long Beach and Norfolk; LSM-469 is not named. Moreover this hull was transferred to Thailand in May 1962, roughly 13-17 years before the documented 1975/1979 removal-policy era, so no U.S. Navy abatement record for her under those policies can exist; the row establishes only that asbestos was a documented Navy-wide shipboard material of the era. gao.gov returns HTTP 403 to automated direct fetch; product-page description captured via Firecrawl scrape (live page verified 2026-10-01); full-text PDF pull remains an open lead.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-469-04
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[5]National Archives catalog (catalog.archives.gov) search for 'LSM-469' - 53 fuzzy results including three file units named for this hull: 'Drawings for USS LSM-469' (NAID 153715326, RG 19 Ship Engineering Drawings 1874-1976, Bureau of Ships), 'USS LSM-469' (NAID 472241476, RG 24 Casualty Information Reports 1941-1960, Bureau of Naval Personnel), and 'LSM-469 (LSM(R)-469)' (NAID 2760954, RG 38 Material Inspection Reports and Related Documentation 1940-1978, Board of Inspection and Survey); unit-level records also cataloged (COM LSM GR 44 war diary 11/1-30/45, NAID 77583931 - her WWII group; Commander Columbia River Group Pacific Reserve Fleet 12/1/45-1/1/49, NAID 190113550 - her reserve-fleet group; RG 24 Index to Muster Rolls 'USS LSM-144 to USS LST-1005', NAID 118967604, 2,968 digitized images spanning this hull's range) [other_primary]
- Locator
- catalog.archives.gov search 'LSM-469' (53 results, all 3 pages reviewed); NAID 153715326; NAID 472241476; NAID 2760954; NAID 77583931; NAID 190113550; NAID 118967604
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA catalog search surfaced three hull-named file units for LSM-469: (1) Bureau of Ships ship engineering drawings (NAID 153715326) - construction drawings that would carry structural and material notations; (2) a Bureau of Naval Personnel casualty information report file (NAID 472241476, container 54); (3) a Board of Inspection and Survey material inspection file, 'LSM-469 (LSM(R)-469)' (NAID 2760954, container 103) - INSURV material-condition reports are the most asbestos-relevant of the located leads. All three are 'Not Yet Available Online' paper records at NARA College Park; none examined. Her parent-unit and lay-up records are also cataloged: COM LSM GR 44 war diary (Nov 1945) and Commander Columbia River Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet (Dec 1945-Jan 1949).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 2026-10-01
- Limitations
- Search-level finding, not a record pull - the three hull-named file units are paper-only at College Park and their contents are unexamined; presence of a file unit does not establish its contents or any asbestos notation. The INSURV title's '(LSM(R)-469)' parenthetical is unexplained - LSM-469 was an unconverted LSM-1-class unit, so the file may bundle coverage with a rocket-variant hull or reflect cataloger notation. The RG 24 casualty file may document a personnel casualty rather than the hull. The muster-roll index (NAID 118967604) is digitized but is an index, not the rolls themselves. Contains no asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-469-05
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[6]Batch-6282 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS (no LSM coverage); hazegray DANFS mirror; NavSource amphibious archive; NVR; NARA catalog; GAO; CourtListener API v4 (opinion and docket/RECAP indexes); secondary web sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lsm-469-01 through sl-uss-lsm-469-09
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or docketed case naming LSM-469 (or her Thai identities HTMS Kram (L-3) / HTMS Khramto (L-732)) was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). CourtListener returned 13 opinion-index results for 'LSM-469' - all token-noise matches on unrelated cases (none containing the hull string, 'landing ship', or asbestos terms), a completed negative; the unhyphenated 'LSM 469' returned the same 13 unrelated opinions; the docket/RECAP index returned 447 results whose first page of 20 was all unrelated RECAP dockets matching token fragments (e.g., 'LSM Number' fields on judgment forms) - no qualifying case surfaced. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case and no law-firm marketing listicle naming this specific hull.
- 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 - era-consistent inference remains reasonable for a 1945 diesel amphibious ship that served 41 years in two navies. CourtListener coverage is limited to its indexed opinions and RECAP dockets; the 447-hit docket return was reviewed at page depth only (20 of 447), though all reviewed hits were unrelated token matches; unindexed filings, state-court matters, settled claims, and any Thai-side proceedings are outside its scope. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-469-06