Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]research packet 592-packet.md (1 sources cited) [museum_official]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: **VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-lsm-61-lsm61-pkt-592-packet-md
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[2]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LSM-61 (10/14/14061.htm), history extract from LSM-LSMR Amphibious Forces Vol. II (Turner Publishing, 1997; ISBN 1-56311-389-9) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 14061.htm header/history block, specifications block, awards ribbon display, photo-caption series, and commanding-officer list
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull (NavSource Amphibious Photo Archive, history extract credited to LSM-LSMR Amphibious Forces Vol. II, Turner Publishing 1997): LSM-1-class; laid down 7 July 1944 at Brown Ship Building Co., Houston, TX; launched 29 July 1944; commissioned USS LSM-61 2 September 1944, LTjg. Charles A. Miller, USNR, in command; WWII Asiatic-Pacific Theater assignment - LSM Flotilla Six (CDR A. R. Quinn, USN), LSM Group Sixteen (LCDR J. T. Brugger Jr., USNR), LSM Division Thirty-One; campaign: Okinawa Gunto operation, Assault and Occupation of Okinawa Gunto, 2 April to 18 June 1945; occupation service in the Far East 17 September to 10 November 1945; decommissioned 21 March 1946 at Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA; struck from the Naval Register 17 April 1946; earned one battle star for WWII service; final disposition sold May 1947 to Angelo Conti Inc., New York, N.Y., fate unknown. Spec block: 520 t light / 743 t landing / 1,095 t full load; 203'6" ovl x 34'6" beam; 13.2 kts; complement 5 officers + 54 enlisted; armament one twin 40mm bow + four single 20mm; capacity 5 medium or 3 heavy tanks, or 6 LVTs, or 9 DUKWs; endurance 4,900 mi @ 12 kts. Ribbon display: American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1), WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp), Philippines Liberation Medal. Call sign NVER. Photo captions place her beached at Batangas Bay, P.I., circa Aug-Sep 1945 with USS LSM-221 and USS LSM-165, and at Senami, Honshu, Japan, circa late-1945-early-1946 with USS LSM-154. Commanding officers listed: Miller (2 Sep 1944-4 Nov 1945), Carson (4 Nov 1945-21 Mar 1946).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1947
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (1944); USN crew (1944-46); unknown breakers/handlers post-1947
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - milestone dates track the Turner Publishing extract. Page verified live 2026-10-02 via Firecrawl (HTTP 200, navsource.net - the .org domain is dead). Contains no asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-61-lsm61-01
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[3]Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library Online Reading Room: 'United States Pacific Fleet Organization, 1 May 1945' [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- LSM FLOTILLA SIX > LSM GROUP 16 > LSM DIVISION 31, row 'LSM 61 (1) - Lt. C. A. Miller (USNR)'
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The NHHC Navy Department Library transcription of 'United States Pacific Fleet Organization, 1 May 1945' lists 'LSM 61 (1) - Lt. C. A. Miller (USNR)' under LSM Flotilla Six (Comdr A. R. Quinn), LSM Group 16 (Lt. Cdr. J. T. Brugger, Jr., USNR), LSM Division 31 - the same flotilla/group/division assignment and commanding officer NavSource/Turner records - alongside LSM 56, LSM 62, LSM 221, LSM 240, and LSM 320 in Division 31.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945
- Limitations
- Organizational roster only: establishes the hull's Pacific Fleet unit assignment and CO as of 1 May 1945 (mid-Okinawa-operation) but documents no operations, location, or service event for this hull, and contains no asbestos or material content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-61-lsm61-02
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[4]Era inference built on: NavSource specification block (Fairbanks Morse diesel plant, this hull); Corn & Starr 1987 WWII-shipbuilding asbestos documentation (ev-04); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy asbestos-era program documentation (ev-05) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block; synthesis of ev-04 and ev-05 era documentation
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A diesel-powered LSM-1-class landing ship built in 1944 at Brown Shipbuilding's Green's Bayou yard, Houston, sits inside the documented WWII-era U.S. naval shipbuilding asbestos-use period. Era-standard applications aboard a diesel amphibious hull of this type and period were machinery and exhaust thermal insulation/lagging, gaskets, valve packing, electrical insulation, and winch/windlass brake linings in a compact hull volume. As a diesel ship she carried no steam plant - the boiler/steam-line lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1947
- Population
- Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (1944); USN crew (1944-46); unknown breakers post-1947
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, outfitting specification, or work package located for LSM-61. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity, no manufacturer attribution for this hull, no present-day presence claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-61-lsm61-03
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[5]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
- AJIM 11(3):359-373, abstract and article
- 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 in the 1940s - the era and program under which this LSM-1-class hull was mass-produced in 1944 - and that wartime demand drove unprecedented asbestos utilization in ship construction, with disease manifesting among shipyard workers twenty years later.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1940s era documented; article 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 or this yard and does not establish that asbestos was or remains aboard this hull, nor quantity, location, condition, exposure, or causation. DOI resolves live to the Wiley article page 2026-10-02 (verified via Firecrawl; direct curl to Wiley returns 403).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-61-lsm61-04
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[6]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979; publicly released Oct 22, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2, Highlights section
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO reviewed the Navy's efforts to protect workers from asbestos exposure (fieldwork at the 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.' Per the report highlights, the Navy's 1975 policy was to remove and replace with nonasbestos materials only insulation that was damaged or had to be removed to accomplish necessary repairs, modified in 1979 to selectively replace asbestos insulation in high-maintenance areas - establishing that asbestos insulation was in service aboard Navy ships of this hull's era and remained a managed material into the late 1970s.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1975-1979 policy window
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation; fieldwork yards were Long Beach and Norfolk - not Brown Shipbuilding - so this is era/program context, not a hull or builder-yard finding. Product page verified live via Firecrawl 2026-10-02; the full-report PDF (gao.gov/assets/hrd-80-2.pdf) returned HTTP 403 to direct curl - content quoted from the live Highlights text.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-61-lsm61-05
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[7]Batch-6352 search ledger (this record): NavSource (live); NHHC Pacific Fleet organization document; NHHC DANFS checks; HyperWar DANFS mirror; NVR scope check; MARAD Vessel History Database; CourtListener opinion search; GAO product page; EPA ECHO facility queries; Wikipedia sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lsm-61-01 through sl-uss-lsm-61-13
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or verified litigation naming USS LSM-61 was found in the public sources searched. CourtListener coverage (authenticated API v4, all HTTP 200): opinion search 'LSM-61' returned count 42 - all top-20 reviewed are name collisions (the hyphenated query tokenizes to unrelated model numbers, docket fragments, and terms in patent, employment, and state-court matters); docket-level RECAP search 'LSM-61' returned count 2,332 / document_count 3,245, all token collisions in the top-10 reviewed with zero references to the vessel or asbestos; quoted variants '"LSM 61"' and '"USS LSM-61"' each returned count 0. NHHC has no DANFS entry for this hull; NVR excludes pre-1987 disposals; MARAD carries no record. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no ship-specific 'asbestos aboard' claims for this hull - asbestos content found online attaches to the Brown Shipbuilding yard via law-firm marketing pages, excluded by source policy.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 2026-10-02
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1944-built amphibious hull is era-consistent with asbestos-containing materials, and the 1947 private sale with 'fate unknown' leaves material fate unrecorded. CourtListener tokenization caveat: short hull strings match unrelated tokens, so the collision-filtered opinion/RECAP counts are breadth-checked at top-N depth, not exhaustive review of all 2,332 docket hits. Does not establish presence or absence; does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-61-lsm61-06