Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
-
[1]research packet 730-packet.md (4 sources cited) [museum_official]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED (specialist-secondary sourcing disclosed)
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Limitations
- qualifier: VERIFIED (specialist-secondary sourcing disclosed)
- Evidence ID
- uss-lst-815-lst815-pkt-730-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, LST-815 - construction, sponsor, commissioning, Okinawa campaign, occupation duty, decommissioning, disposal (live NHHC page, fetched via Firecrawl and re-verified HTTP 200 with browser UA 2026-10-03; the host is UA-gated - bare curl returns 404) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS LST-815 entry, full text
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS documents for this hull: laid down 28 August 1944 at Evansville, Ind., by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co.; launched 7 October 1944, sponsored by Miss Elizabeth Sweet; commissioned 30 October 1944. Assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater; participated in the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto from April through June 1945; occupation duty in the Far East until early November 1945; returned to the United States and decommissioned 6 September 1946; sold 25 May 1948 to the Basalt Rock Co., Inc., for scrapping. One battle star for World War II service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- Construction trades (Evansville, 1944); ship's company and embarked troops (1944-46)
- Limitations
- Ship-specific official history only; no asbestos or material content. No stricken date stated. Decommissioning port not stated. The 'for scrapping' wording describes the U.S. disposal paperwork - the hull was in fact resold to France (see ev-02, ev-03). DANFS's 6 September 1946 decommissioning conflicts by one day with NavSource's 7 September.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-01
-
[3]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LST-815 (10/16/160815.htm, last updated 3 November 2023; page maintained by Gary P. Priolo) - designation timeline, unit assignments, spec block, campaign/occupation dates, disposal chain to France, French-service photo record [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/16/160815.htm header block, campaign table, specifications block, photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource documents for this hull: LST-542-class tank landing ship laid down 28 August 1944 at Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co., Evansville, IN; launched 7 October 1944; commissioned USS LST-815 30 October 1944, LT. Robert S. Denham Jr., USNR, in command; radio call sign NHCQ. Unit assignment: LST Flotilla Twenty-Five (CAPT. H.E. Richter USN), LST Group Seventy-Four (CDR. J.G. Farnsworth), LST Division One Hundred Forty-Seven. Asiatic-Pacific campaign table: Okinawa Gunto operation, assault and occupation, 2 April to 30 June 1945. Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp) periods: 20 September-12 October 1945 and 25 October-5 November 1945. Decommissioned 7 September 1946; struck from the Naval Register, date unknown; sold 25 May 1948 to Basalt Rock Co., Inc.; resold by Basalt Rock Co. to France in 1948; final disposition scrapped by France in 1969. French service as RFS Odet (L9005), call sign FAOD - photos document her underway circa 1954, drydocked Toulon circa 1955, on the Saigon River circa 1955, arriving Toulon 29 August 1966 with repatriated remains from Vietnam, at Abidjan in 1967, and during Operation Colomba 23 October 1968. Spec block: 1,625 t light / 4,080 t full / 2,366 t beaching; 328 ft oa x 50 ft; 11.6 kt trial; 2 x GM 12-567A 900 hp diesels, single Falk main reduction gear, 2 shafts 1,700 shp, 3 x diesel-drive 100 kW 230 V D.C. generators; complement 13 officers / 104 enlisted; troops 16 officers / 147 enlisted; 2 LCVP; ultimate armament design 2 twin 40mm + 4 single 40mm + 12 single 20mm. Awards: American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1 star), World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp). Construction photos document the 24 October 1944 broom-raising and the 30 October 1944 commissioning ceremony at Evansville with the unfinished LST-819 alongside (Evansville Shipyard Collection items).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1944-1969
- Population
- Ship's company (~117) plus embarked troops (1944-46); French Navy crew of Odet (1948-circa 1969)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - construction and campaign dates cross-check cleanly against DANFS and the ship's own war diaries, and the unit/CO data matches the NHHC 1 May 1945 fleet organization page. The French-service timeline is documented by contributed photographs and secondary compilation; dates between the 1961 active-service withdrawal (Jane's) and 1969 scrapping are imprecisely documented. Contains no asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-02
-
[4]NHHC, United States Pacific Fleet Organization, 1 May 1945 (online reading room) - fleet/unit listing (live NHHC page, re-verified HTTP 200 with browser UA 2026-10-03; host is UA-gated) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NHHC online reading room page, LST Group 74 / LST Division 147 table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The official NHHC organization listing for 1 May 1945 places this hull in LST Division 147 under LST Group 74 (Comdr. J. G. Farnsworth USNR), with commanding officer 'Lt. R. S. Denham, Jr. (USNR)' - independently corroborating the NavSource unit assignment and the war-diary signature block, mid-Okinawa-campaign.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1945-05-01
- Population
- Ship's company under LT Denham (May 1945)
- Limitations
- A point-in-time administrative listing - confirms unit and commanding officer as of 1 May 1945 only; no asbestos, material, or condition content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-03
-
[5]NARA, RG 38 World War II War Diaries - eight digitized ship-titled file units for USS LST-815: NAIDs 139921478 (Jan 1945), 139921482 (Feb), 633399065 (Mar, incl. appended causeway-loss letter), 139984103 (Apr), 140013802 (May), 101722337 (Jun), 77478155 (Jul), 77492485 (Aug 1945); Fold3 scans; 52 pages total, all downloaded and OCR-read this session [other_primary]
- Locator
- NAID 139921478 (3 imgs), 139921482 (5 imgs), 633399065 (9 imgs incl. causeway-loss letter), 139984103 (7 imgs), 140013802 (6 imgs), 101722337 (7 imgs), 77478155 (8 imgs), 77492485 (7 imgs); catalog.archives.gov/id/<naid>
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The ship's own war diaries document: January 1945 - Pier 2 Naval Repair Base San Diego and Naval Supply Depot San Diego (1-3 Jan); pontoon/causeway loading at Port Hueneme (4 Jan; per the appended March letter, installed by the 29th Naval Construction Battalion); Seattle U.S. Naval Station piers 90/48/50 and 13th Naval District training (9-31 Jan); Army cargo loading at Sound Construction Co., Lake Union (31 Jan-8 Feb); ammunition at Port Orchard; departure for Pearl Harbor 10 Feb with 7 Army officers and 131 enlisted, in company with ComLSTGr73 in LST-798 plus LSTs 817, 887, 334, 447; West Loch berth T-8 from 22 Feb. March - departure 4 Mar in Task Unit 51.13.4 (CDR Zelenka, LST-244) via Eniwetok (fueled from tanker IX-112) to Saipan (24 Mar), sortie for Okinawa 26 Mar; loss of the starboard pontoon causeway string in heavy seas 31 Mar (welded 'U' bolts shearing; 128th NCB causeway platoon aboard; no cargo or personnel loss). April - beachings at Green One (2 Apr) and Slot 25 Green Beach-2 (3 Apr), air-raid alerts; 6 Apr at Slot 16 Green Beach-1 fired 40mm during suicide attacks, observed 12 Japanese planes downed; return to San Pedro Bay 14 Apr; repairs alongside USS Markab (15-16 Apr) and in floating drydock ARD-16 (17 Apr); 464.7 tons Army engineering/AA cargo loaded at Tarraguna piers (18-21 Apr). May - Okinawa unloadings at Orange Beach and Kobesoko Village, Nago Wan; loading construction material alongside AGK J. Maurice Thompson; 294 rounds of 40mm fired at planes 16 May; to Saipan 20 May. June - Puerto Princesa, Palawan loading (16 Jun); convoy to Okinawa; grounding amidships on a reef at Nago Wan 28 Jun after stern anchor fouled with LST-874's, screws damaged; engine trials with Flotilla 21 staff 30 Jun. July - engines overheating from damaged propellers, taken in tow by ATF-114 (3-6 Jul); floating drydock ARD-12 at Subic Bay 16 Jul, 'Propellers replaced and other repairs completed'; loading at Gypsy Loading Beach, Subic (17-19 Jul); unloading at Naha (25-26 Jul) and loading at Yonabaru, Buckner Bay (27-28 Jul). August - typhoon evasion (Plan X-Ray South, 1 Aug); San Pedro Bay; Mangarin Bay, Mindoro (unload 11 Aug); Gavilan Beach, Zamboanga (beached 14-18 Aug awaiting loading orders that did not come); San Pedro Bay through month's end. Diaries signed R. S. Denham, Jr., Lt., USNR; distribution copies to ComLSTGr74 early in the run, ComLSTFlot6/ComLSTGr16 by August.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1945-01 to 1945-08
- Population
- Ship's company (~117 class figure) plus embarked Army units, CB detachments, and causeway platoon (Jan-Aug 1945); repair personnel aboard/alongside during the Markab, ARD-16, and ARD-12 availabilities
- Limitations
- Primary ship-produced records; OCR extraction is clean typescript throughout (unlike batch-6477's degraded LST-790 scans); nothing was carried from unviewed pages. The diaries document the repair/drydock events and their dates verbatim but do not itemize work content or materials - they do not say 'asbestos.' Coverage is Jan-Aug 1945 only: commissioning-period diaries (Nov-Dec 1944) and post-August 1945 diaries (occupation duty, return, decommissioning) were not surfaced in catalog results. The January-5 line's companion-ship rendering 'LST 617' is inconsistent with the six subsequent '817' renderings and the Feb-10 convoy list; treated as a misprint, not a finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-04
-
[6]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 2 (1945), LST design table (shipscribe.com scan, verified live HTTP 200 on 2026-10-03); NavSource LST-815 spec block; lst-1-class class profile (class-f worktree) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB 1945 v2 LST design table; NavSource 160815.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, 900 hp each, single Falk main reduction gear, twin screws 1,700 shp - 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 hull's documented April and July 1945 repair events (alongside USS Markab; inside ARD-16 and ARD-12, including propeller replacement after reef grounding) placed repair trades at or aboard this hull inside the Navy's asbestos-use era.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1944-1969
- Population
- Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron construction trades (1944); ship's company/embarked troops (1944-46); repair trades at San Pedro Bay and Subic Bay (Apr, Jul 1945); French Navy crew and French shipyard trades (1948-1969); scrappers (France, 1969)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material schedule, or repair work package was located for LST-815. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials; no quantities; no manufacturer attribution. The documented repair events are operational facts; their asbestos relevance (disturbance of era insulation materials) is inference, explicitly not ship-proven.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-05
-
[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 including the documented 1945 repair availabilities, her 1948 U.S. disposal, and the opening decades of her French service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- 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 2026-10-03) - content via product-page description. French Navy material practices are outside this report's scope.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-06
-
[8]Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Digital Archive, 'Evansville in WWII' collection / Evansville Shipyard Collection (original publisher: Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company, Shipbuilding Division; original repository: Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science) - digitized builder's photographic archive; NavSource credits it for this hull's broom-raising (24 Oct 1944, item 1948_151.-085575) and commissioning-ceremony (30 Oct 1944, item 1948_151.-08582) photographs [other_primary]
- Locator
- digital.evpl.org collection evawwii; CONTENTdm single-item API verified 2026-10-03; NavSource photo credit lines
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- A digitized builder-archive collection exists for the yard that built this hull: the Evansville Shipyard Collection preserves Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. Shipbuilding Division photographs, including identified LST-815 construction-period items already published via NavSource. Untested for material-level detail (insulation schedules, fitting-out specifications).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1944
- Population
- Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Shipbuilding Division workforce, Evansville (1942-1945 construction program)
- Limitations
- Collection-level finding only - the two LST-815 items known were located through NavSource photo credits; no systematic item-level search of the 6,865-record collection was performed for this hull, and no asbestos-relevant document was identified. Archival lead, not an asbestos finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-07
-
[9]Batch-7355 search ledger (this record): DANFS; NHHC fleet-organization page; NavSource; NARA catalog + eight war-diary file units read in full; BuShips SDB 1945 v2; GAO product page; NIOSH HHE search; NVR; EVPL digital archive; secondary web sweep. CourtListener attempted and blocked (daily quota exhausted - outstanding, not a negative finding). [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lst-815-lst815-01 through -13
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located in the sources searched: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or material schedule naming LST-815/RFS Odet was found, and the ship's own war diaries (52 pages read in full) contain no asbestos or insulation-material content. The litigation layer could not be checked this session - CourtListener's account daily quota was exhausted (helper-reported ~10-hour Retry-After); that check remains outstanding and is logged as a blocked access gap, not as a negative litigation finding.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 2026-10-03
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - construction at a wartime inland yard plus three documented 1945 repair/drydock events sit squarely inside the Navy's asbestos-use era, and the French-service decades (1948-1969) are undocumented for materials. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility; the litigation check specifically remains open.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-08
-
[10]NARA catalog, 'LST-815' searches - ~275 file units (fuzzy relevance); ship-titled units surfaced are the eight Jan-Aug 1945 war diaries; parent-unit COM LST GR 74 diaries are digitized; no deck-log, muster-roll, or casualty-report file unit for this hull surfaced; no diaries surfaced for Nov-Dec 1944 or Sep 1945 onward [other_primary]
- Locator
- catalog.archives.gov 'LST-815' and 'USS LST-815' result sets; 'LST-815 logbook' restricted search returned no deck-log unit
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Primary archive coverage for this hull is digitized but bounded: ship-titled war diaries run January through August 1945 only. Diaries covering commissioning/shakedown (Nov-Dec 1944), the September-November 1945 occupation period documented by NavSource/DANFS, and the 1946 return and decommissioning were not surfaced; the parent-unit war diaries (COM LST GR 74, and the August diary's ComLSTFlot6/ComLSTGr16 distribution) are digitized and bridge the unit-level record. No deck-log or muster file unit for this hull surfaced in the catalog.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1944-1969
- Population
- Ship's company (1944-46); researchers
- Limitations
- Archival-lead row: unsurfaced file units may exist undigitized or under variant titles; WWII deck logs proper for this hull were not located in the catalog searches run; RG 181 forward-repair-base work-package records for the documented ARD-16/ARD-12 dockings are an open archival lead; French naval archives (Service historique de la Defense) hold the Odet (L9005) record but were not searched.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-815-lst815-09