Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
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[1]research packet 706-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-663-lst663-pkt-706-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, LST-663 - construction, sponsor, commissioning, southern Palau/Leyte/Okinawa campaigns, decommissioning, strike, disposal (live NHHC page, fetched via Firecrawl; bare curl returns 404 - UA-gated, re-verified HTTP 200 with browser UA 2026-10-02) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS LST-663 entry, full text
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS documents for this hull: laid down 22 January 1944 at Ambridge, Pa., by the American Bridge Co.; launched 8 April 1944, sponsored by Mrs. J. P. Delaney; commissioned 5 May 1944. Asiatic-Pacific theater operations: capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands (September and October 1944); Leyte landings (October and November 1944); assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (April through June 1945). Post-war: returned to the United States, decommissioned 29 May 1946, struck from the Navy list 19 July 1946, sold 11 December 1947 to the Southern Shipwrecking Co. of New Orleans, La., and subsequently scrapped. Three battle stars for World War II service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- Construction trades (Ambridge, 1944); ship's company and embarked troops (1944-46); breakers (1947-48)
- Limitations
- Ship-specific official history only; no asbestos or material content. DANFS does not name the commissioning commanding officer, does not state the decommissioning port, does not mention the Maritime Commission transfer that NavSource records for the same date, and gives no post-war employment detail between return and decommissioning.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-01
-
[3]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LST-663 (10/16/160663.htm, last updated 5 May 2018) - construction/campaign/disposal timeline, Okinawa unit assignments, commanding-officer list, spec block, awards, photo record including 1946 Port Arthur yard photograph [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/16/160663.htm header block, campaign table, specifications block, CO table, photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource documents for this hull: LST-542-class tank landing ship laid down 22 January 1944 at American Bridge Co., Ambridge, PA; launched 8 April 1944; commissioned USS LST-663 5 May 1944, LT. Richard P. Lambert Jr. USNR in command. Campaign table: Western Caroline Islands operation - capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands 6 September-14 October 1944; Leyte operation - Leyte landings 18 October-6 November 1944; Okinawa Gunto operation - assault and occupation 1 April-24 June 1945, under LST Flotilla Fourteen (CAPT. E. A. Seay USN), LST Group Forty (CDR. G. Reith USN), LST Division Seventy-Nine. Decommissioned 29 May 1946; struck from the Naval Register 19 July 1946; transferred to the Maritime Commission 11 December 1947 for disposal; final disposition sold for scrapping 11 December 1947 to Southern Shipwrecking Co., New Orleans, LA. Three battle stars; radio call sign NKWS. Awards block: American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3), WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Medal (Asia clasp), Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, Philippine Liberation Medal (1). CO list: LT Lambert USNR 5 May 1944-December 1945; LT John Yacevich USN December 1945-29 May 1946. Spec block: 1,625 t light / 4,080 t full / 2,366 t beaching; 328 ft oa x 50 ft; 11.6 kt; 2 x GM 12-567A 900 hp diesels, single Falk main reduction gear, 3 x 100 kW 230 V DC generators, 2 propellers 1,700 shp, twin rudders; complement 9 officers / 120 enlisted; troops 14 officers / 131 enlisted; 6 LCVP. Photos include ex-USS LST-663 lying at the Gulfport Boiler and Iron Works, Port Arthur TX, in 1946 - captioned 'Gulfport probably carried out the demilitarization of the ship prior to her sale for scrap.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- Ship's company (~129) plus embarked troops (1944-46); Gulfport Boiler and Iron Works yard trades (1946, probable)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - dates cross-check cleanly against DANFS and the NARA records. The Port Arthur 1946 photo caption hedges ('probably') - the demilitarization role is plausible but not confirmed by the source; the yard is not a shipyards.json entry. Navy Occupation Medal (Asia clasp) implies post-surrender Far East service that DANFS's entry does not detail - the specific occupation itinerary is undocumented in the sources read. Contains no asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-02
-
[4]NARA NAID 140000602, 'USS LST-663 - Rep of ops in the occupation of the Okinawa Gunto, Ryukyu Is, 3/28/1945 - 5/3/1945' (serial 8-45, 5 May 1945; RG 38, World War II War Diaries series, micro serial 121885, roll A1602; 5 images; digitized via Fold3) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NAID 140000602, images 0139-0143 of roll A1602 (downloaded and OCR-read 2026-10-02)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The ship's own five-page action report (all pages OCR-read, key passages re-verified by direct image display this session) documents LST-663's Okinawa Gunto employment as a fleet ammunition ship verbatim: departed Ulithi 21 March 1945 in a task unit under Commander J. G. Farnsworth, USN (in USS LST-618) with ~1,800 tons of ammunition for fleet units rearming at Kerama Retto; arrived Kerama Retto 28 March, where the ammunition LSTs passed to control of CTG 51.1 under tactical command of Commander LST Group Seventy-Four (Farnsworth); through 5 April she rearmed battleships New Mexico, Tennessee, and Maryland and cruiser Minneapolis; on 5 April she shifted to the Western Beaches anchorages reporting to CTF 53 and rearmed cruiser Salt Lake City while receiving surplus ammunition; on 10 April she returned to Kerama Retto under CTG 51.15 to balance the load for general fleet issue; and on 13 April she resumed station off the Western Beaches reporting to CTG 51.22 as 'Ammunition Service Ship' until 3 May, rearming battleships Tennessee and New Mexico, cruisers St. Louis, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Salt Lake City, and six destroyers, alongside receiving surplus cargo ammunition from various LSTs, LCSs, and cargo ships. The report documents nightly air raids: 16 April, the ship fired 40mm bursts to alert nearby ships to an enemy plane that four Navy Corsairs then destroyed; 27 April, the anchored ship was straddled by shore-battery fire with at least twelve shells exploding within 50-500 yards before she got underway; and 28 April ~0303, the ship engaged a single-engined fighter crossing her stern below 250 ft with 40mm and 20mm fire, claimed a 'kill' when it crashed ~500 yards off her starboard side - the report notes USS Mobile (CL-63) subsequently reported a hit but did not claim the plane, having ceased fire when this vessel obstructed her line. The report records no materiel damage and no personnel casualties; on 3 May she returned to the Kerama Retto anchorage on CTU 51.22 orders.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945-03-28 to 1945-05-03
- Population
- Ship's company (1945); fleet units rearmed alongside (named battleships, cruisers, destroyers)
- Limitations
- Primary ship-produced record; the two load-bearing name lists and the Group Seventy-Four command line were re-verified by direct image display after tesseract OCR garbled them. Two ammunition-expenditure figures and the convoy task-unit numeral remain partially illegible in the carbon-copy scan and were not carried. The report is operational only: no materials, insulation, or repair content, and it covers only the 28 March-3 May 1945 window of a campaign NavSource dates 1 April-24 June 1945. The tactical commander it names (ComLSTGr74) differs from NavSource's Okinawa unit attribution (LST Group Forty) - plausibly different phases; both carried attributed.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-03
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[5]NARA NAID 126620799, 'LST-663, 5/5/44-5/29/46' (RG 24, Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, Roll No. 4720; 215 images; digitized via Ancestry) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NAID 126620799; forwarding sheet (image 3), commissioning Report of Changes (image 9), March 1945 officers' changes (image 108) - images sampled of 215
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The ship's complete muster-roll file unit spans her entire commissioned life (5 May 1944-29 May 1946): quarterly rolls, monthly Reports of Changes, and recapitulation sheets. Sampled pages (forwarding sheet and change reports read this session) document: the 30 June 1944 quarterly roll forwarded 5 July 1944 from San Pedro, California, certified by LT H. E. Beebe USNR (Executive Officer) and approved by LT R. P. Lambert USNR (Commanding Officer) - placing the ship on the U.S. west coast within two months of commissioning; and the commissioning-day Report of Changes (5 May 1944) showing enlisted crew received from ATB, Camp Bradford, Norfolk, Va. (Amphibious Training Base) - the documented origin of the ship's company. A March 1945 officers' Report of Changes shows Ens. John Trumbull Douglas USNR received 19 March 1945 for temporary duty from Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Ship's company (5 May 1944-29 May 1946), origin ATB Camp Bradford; embarked personnel in passenger/change reports
- Limitations
- Digitized and confirmed ship-titled, but the 215-image series was sampled, not enumerated: no quarterly headcount was compiled, so actual on-board strength figures remain unverified (NavSource spec block carried instead). Must be re-opened for any individual-crew-member verification; contains no asbestos or material content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-04
-
[6]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 2 (1945), LST design table (shipscribe.com scan); NavSource LST-663 spec block; lst-1-class class profile (class-f worktree, 2026-09-16) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB 1945 v2 LST design table; NavSource 160663.htm specifications block
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era inference for this hull: the LST-542 design group ran a diesel plant (2 x GM 12-567A diesels, 1,700 shp total, Falk reduction gear, twin screws - BuShips design table and this hull's NavSource spec block) with no boilers, so the steam-plant lagging pathway of boiler vessels does not apply. Asbestos-relevant applications aboard a 1944 diesel landing ship of this type were the era-standard set - diesel-exhaust and machinery-space lagging, gaskets and packing, accommodation thermal insulation, deck coverings - and the ship's documented 1946 presence at Gulfport Boiler and Iron Works, Port Arthur (demilitarization prior to scrap sale, per NavSource's hedged caption) adds a probable post-service yard event aboard this hull inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era (GAO HRD-80-2).
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- American Bridge construction trades (Ambridge, 1944); ship's company/embarked troops (1944-46); Gulfport Boiler and Iron Works trades (1946, probable); Southern Shipwrecking breakers (1947-48)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material schedule, or yard work package was located for LST-663. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials; no quantities; no manufacturer attribution. The Port Arthur demilitarization is NavSource-captioned inference ('probably'), not a work record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-05
-
[7]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2 (full text blocked, HTTP 403)
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented that the Navy used asbestos insulation extensively aboard ships and did not begin substituting alternative insulation materials until the early 1970s - spanning this hull's construction (1944), her Pacific service and ammunition-ship duty, the probable 1946 Port Arthur demilitarization, and her 1947-48 scrapping.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation; supports era context only, not any fact specific to this hull. Full text not retrieved (gao.gov returns HTTP 403 to automated fetch, reconfirmed 2026-10-02) - content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-06
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[8]CourtListener API v4 search (authenticated, fleet-paced helper), opinion index [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lst-663-lst663-07 through -09
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying asbestos litigation located in the opinion index: exact-phrase "LST-663" returned 0 hits (authenticated request completed 2026-10-02). The docket index and the "LST 663" asbestos opinion query could not be completed this session - the fleet-paced helper reported the hourly request budget spent on repeated attempts; logged as blocked, not as a result.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 2026-10-02
- Limitations
- Partial coverage only: a zero opinion-index result means no published opinion naming this hull in CourtListener's index - state-court filings, unreported settlements, MDL-875 pleading-level vessel lists, and non-digitized dockets are outside coverage. The docket-index check remains open (search_ledger sl-08, sl-09 blocked); a completed docket check could still surface pleading-stage collisions.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-07
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[9]Batch-7187 search ledger (this record): DANFS; NavSource; NARA catalog + two ship-titled file units (action report read in full; muster series sampled); BuShips SDB 1945 v2; GAO product page; CourtListener API (opinion index; docket index attempted); NIOSH HHE search; NVR; secondary web sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lst-663-lst663-01 through -15
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, material schedule, or qualifying case naming LST-663 was found in the public sources searched. The strongest ship-specific documentation is operational/personnel (the Okinawa action report and the complete muster-roll series) plus one 1946 photograph at a commercial Gulf Coast yard; no primary source read names asbestos aboard this hull.
- 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 - construction at a wartime yard and a probable 1946 commercial-yard demilitarization sit squarely inside the Navy's asbestos-use era. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-08
-
[10]NARA catalog, "USS LST-663" - 45 file units (fuzzy relevance; ship-titled units: action report NAID 140000602 and muster series NAID 126620799, both digitized); "LST-663" returns ~227 units incl. parent-unit COM LST GR 74 war diaries (3/45, 4/45, 5/45) [other_primary]
- Locator
- catalog.archives.gov "USS LST-663" and "LST-663" result sets; NAIDs 140000602, 126620799; COM LST GR 74 NAIDs 140001573, 140044104, 101705322
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Primary archive coverage for this hull is digitized but thin in kind: the two ship-titled file units surfaced are the Okinawa Gunto action report (read in full) and the complete muster-roll series (215 images, sampled). No ship-titled monthly war diary surfaced in catalog results - unlike sister hulls with digitized monthly diaries (e.g., LST-790), LST-663's narrative record in the war-diaries series appears limited to the action report; COM LST GR 74 monthly diaries (March-May 1945) surface under 'LST-663' relevance and are confirmed relevant - the action report names ComLSTGr74 (CDR J. G. Farnsworth, in LST-618) as this hull's tactical commander at Kerama Retto - making the unit diaries the coverage bridge. WWII deck logs proper for this hull were not located in the digitized deck-log program checked (the 'LST-663' deck-log hits resolve to other hulls' Vietnam-era logs, e.g. LST-603, via token collision). RG 181 records for the American Bridge Ambridge wartime yard are an open archival lead for construction-scope material.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Ship's company (1944-46); researchers
- Limitations
- Archival-lead row: the COM LST GR 74 diaries were surfaced but not read; LST-663 tasking inside them is unconfirmed beyond the action report's tactical-command attribution (NavSource's Group Forty attribution for the operation may reflect a different phase). Paper-only or unfilmed LST-663 holdings may exist beyond the digitized series; the casualty-report file-unit type located for sister hulls was not surfaced for this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-663-lst663-09