Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
-
[1]research packet 678-packet.md (2 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-lst-481-lst481-pkt-678-packet-md
-
[2]Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, 'USS LST-481' - construction at Kaiser Inc. Richmond, six Pacific campaigns, decommissioning/striking, 1948 sale to Bethlehem Steel, six battle stars (verbatim transcription, HyperWar/ibiblio mirror) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'USS LST-481' (LST section transcription), full entry
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS documents for this hull: laid down 4 September 1942 at Richmond, Calif., by Kaiser, Inc.; launched 2 December 1942; commissioned 15 May 1943. Assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater: Gilbert Islands operation (Nov-Dec 1943); occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls (Jan-Feb 1944); Hollandia operation (Apr 1944); capture and occupation of Guam (Jul 1944); assault and occupation of Iwo Jima (Feb 1945); assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (Apr 1945). Occupation duty in the Far East until mid-November 1945; decommissioned 28 February 1946; struck from the Navy list 12 April 1946; sold 16 April 1948 to Bethlehem Steel Co., Bethlehem, PA, and subsequently scrapped. Six battle stars for WWII service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1942-1948
- Population
- Ship's company and embarked troops across six amphibious operations, 1943-1945
- Limitations
- Verbatim DANFS transcription on ibiblio.org/HyperWar - the canonical NHHC URL (history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/l/lst-481.html) returns HTTP 404 this session with no Wayback capture; transcription is a faithful mirror of official text but is itself a mirror, not the live official page. Sale date '16 April 1948' conflicts with NavSource's '28 April 1948' - carried in gaps. Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-01
-
[3]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LST-481 (10/16/160481) - campaign/dates table, flotilla-group assignments, commanding-officer list, specification block, personnel awards, NARA-captioned photography [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/16/160481 - full page incl. specifications block and commanding-officer table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource documents for this hull: commissioned 15 May 1943 with LT. George McGuire USN in command; unit assignments LST Flotilla Three / Group Seven (Adak), Flotilla Five / Group Thirteen / Division Twenty-Five (Guam; CDR R.W. Cutler then CDR C.R. Lea USNR), Flotilla Twenty-One / Group Nine (Okinawa; CDR S.A. Lief); campaign date ranges for Gilbert Islands, Marshall Islands, Hollandia, Marianas/Guam, Iwo Jima, Okinawa; Navy Occupation Service Medal periods 23-26 Sep 1945 and 20 Oct-15 Nov 1945; decommissioned 28 February 1946 at Stockton, CA; struck 12 April 1946; six battle stars; sold for scrapping 28 April 1948 to Bethlehem Steel Co.; personnel awards 1 KIA (George Davis SC/3) and 11 WIA; spec block: 1,625 t light / 4,080 t full, 328 ft oa, 50 ft beam, 11.6 kt, 13 officers / 104 enlisted, 2 GM 12-567A 900hp diesels through Falk reduction gear, two shafts 1,700 shp. Photography: at Mare Island Navy Yard 20 May 1943 (NH 99567/-A); unloading at Kiska, Alaska 23 August 1943 (NARA III-SC 182866); Makin Island landings 28 November 1943 (NARA 193851514); beached at Apra Harbor, Guam 7 February 1945 (NARA 295395832, COMSERRON 12 War Diary).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1942-1948
- Population
- Ship's company 13 officers / 104 enlisted; embarked troops 16 officers / 147 enlisted
- Limitations
- NavSource is a curated secondary compilation reproducing official records and NARA-captioned photography - hull dates, unit assignments, CO list, and specs documented here; final-disposition date '28 April 1948' conflicts with DANFS '16 April 1948' (carried in gaps). Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-02
-
[4]Commander Transport Squadron Twelve (ComTransRon 12), Action Report - Landing of Occupation Forces, Nagasaki, Japan, September 1945 (NARA-record scan hosted on NavSource) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Action Report - Nagasaki, Part II Preliminaries, ship loading table, scan p.6 of 52
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The ComTransRon 12 action report for the September 1945 landings of occupation forces at Nagasaki lists LST-481 in the group's ship loading table (under the LST block with LSTs 166, 765, 723, 734, 937): the group loaded the 2nd Marine Division at Saipan for the Nagasaki lift. This corroborates the ship's Navy Occupation Service Medal period beginning 23 September 1945 (Nagasaki landing phase).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945
- Population
- Ship's company during occupation lift, Sep-Nov 1945
- Limitations
- Image-only scan (52 pp., no text layer) - LST-481's presence verified by targeted OCR of the loading table (PDF p.6); tabulated personnel/vehicle/cargo figures for the hull are partially legible and not asserted here. Establishes participation in the occupation lift only; contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-03
-
[5]Consolidated era inference - NavSource specification block for this hull (2 x GM 12-567A diesels, Falk gears, 2 shafts, no boilers) + BuShips Ships' Data 1945 Vol. 2 LST design table (class machinery data via batch class-profile research, 2026-09-16) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block; BuShips SDB 1945 v2 LST design table
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference for this diesel-powered LST-1-class hull: with no boiler plant aboard, the steam-lagging pathway is absent; asbestos-relevant applications are the era-standard set for 1942-43 amphibious construction - diesel exhaust lagging and gaskets, engine-room thermal/acoustic insulation, deck coverings and tile, bulkhead and accommodation insulation, and winch/crane brake linings. WWII shipbuilding ran under federal asbestos-allocation priority, and insulating/lagging products of the period were commonly manufactured with asbestos fiber.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1942-1948
- Population
- Construction trades at Kaiser Richmond (1942-43); ship's company and embarked troops; scrapping workers (1948)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no ship-specific asbestos record exists for this hull. Establishes no quantities, no product identities, and no exposure for any individual. The BuShips SDB v2 scan previously cited (shipscribe.com) returned HTTP 404 this session; class design data rests on the 2026-09-16 class-profile retrieval.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-04
-
[6]National Park Service, Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front NHP - Richmond Shipyard No. 3 site page (Kaiser Richmond shipyard complex documentation) [nps]
- Locator
- NPS Richmond Shipyard No. 3 page, site-history text
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NPS documents the four Kaiser Richmond shipyards in which this hull was built: 747 vessels produced across the four Richmond yards during WWII under mass-production methods, with thousands of workers in 'very hazardous jobs'; Richmond's population grew from 20,000 to over 100,000 in three years on the wartime shipbuilding boom.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1940-1945
- Population
- Kaiser Richmond shipyard workforce, 1940-1945
- Limitations
- Builder-yard context, not a hull record - the page documents the Kaiser Richmond complex (specifically Shipyard No. 3) without naming this vessel or asserting asbestos conditions; the secondary-source attribution of this hull to Yard No. 4 is not confirmed by this page. 'Hazardous jobs' phrasing is the NPS's; no asbestos claim is made.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-05
-
[7]NIOSH contract report 210-78-0113, Polakoff / Western Institute for Occupational-Environmental Sciences, 'Bay Area Asbestos Surveillance Project (BAASP)', Dec 1980 (NIOSHTIC 00163534; NTIS PB87-105466) - full text retrieved via CDC Stacks [other_primary]
- Locator
- BAASP draft final report pp.1-3 (pilot chronology, population figures); CDC Stacks catalog page
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- The NIOSH-funded Bay Area Asbestos Surveillance Project documents an estimated 400,000 men and women employed in San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilding and ship repair during WWII - the regional workforce category into which Kaiser Richmond's construction force falls. The project screened WWII shipyard and longshore workers: of 2,244 workers X-rayed, 46% showed potentially serious abnormality; the underlying pilot study (Mare Island and Hunter's Point naval shipyards, 359 participants) found 59.1% of chest X-rays abnormal and consistent with asbestos-related disease.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1940s exposure window; screening 1976-1980
- Population
- San Francisco Bay Area WWII shipyard/longshore workers (~400,000)
- Limitations
- Regional workforce context only - the screened population was drawn from the Mare Island and Hunter's Point NAVAL shipyards; Kaiser Richmond (a commercial yard) is not named in the report. Documents the era and regional industry, not this hull and not the builder yard specifically.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-06
-
[8]US EPA Superfund/CERCLA site profile, 'Kaiser Alum & Chem Co Shipyard #2', Richmond CA (EPA ID CAD980637557) - NFRAP determination [other_primary]
- Locator
- EPA CUMULIS site profile, id=0901909
- Finding type
- environmental_record
- Finding
- EPA's CERCLA record documents the former Kaiser shipyard property at Richmond (Shipyard #2) as a tracked federal-facility assessment site, concluded NFRAP (no further remedial action planned under Superfund) - a government environmental record for the yard complex where this hull was built.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1940s operations; CERCLA assessment era
- Population
- Site-level environmental record
- Limitations
- Yard-property environmental record, not a hull record - documents the former shipyard site, and asbestos is not listed as the primary contaminant in the CERCLA profile. Companion California DTSC project page (Site ID 400137001) now returns 404 with no Wayback capture - removed, not merely blocked.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-07
-
[9]Batch-6987 search ledger (this record): DANFS transcription; NavSource archive page; ComTransRon 12 action report; NPS; NIOSH/CDC Stacks; EPA CERCLA; CourtListener API v4 (opinions + RECAP); secondary-web sweeps [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lst-481-01 through sl-uss-lst-481-12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or docketed case naming LST-481 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). CourtListener opinion and RECAP docket searches on hull-name variants ('LST-481', 'LST 481', 'USS LST-481') returned zero results on both indexes.
- 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 - the hull was built inside the wartime asbestos-allocation era and scrapped in 1948, decades before abatement documentation existed. Does not establish that asbestos was or was not present; does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-08
-
[10]John H. Dougherty (former MoMM 2c, USS LST-481), 'History of USS LST-481' (veteran memoir, HyperWar/ibiblio) - built from NARA deck log and muster-roll copies plus Naval Historical Center war-diary/action-report microfilm [other_primary]
- Locator
- ibiblio.org HyperWar-hosted memoir, author's sources paragraph and commissioning section
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- A crew memoir documents the hull's paper-trail provenance: the author obtained the complete deck log (missing only February 1944) and muster roll from the National Archives Military Branch and the war diary and action reports on Naval Historical Center microfilm; the commissioning-day muster carried 8 officers and 56 enlisted; and the ship was 'damaged in varying degrees of severity by enemy planes, guns or ships' during service - consistent with NavSource's personnel-awards entry (1 KIA, 11 WIA) and retroactive Combat Action Ribbon for Iwo Jima, Guam, and Okinawa.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1943-1946 (records created); memoir undated
- Population
- Commissioning crew (8 officers / 56 enlisted per muster roll); wartime complements thereafter
- Limitations
- Veteran memoir, not an official record - it documents that RG-24-class deck logs/muster rolls and war-diary microfilm exist for this hull but the underlying records were not retrieved this session (undigitized; NARA catalog API unresponsive to scripted query). Damage details are not itemized in the memoir excerpt.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-481-09