USS Rall (DE-304)

Evidence

8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).

1. [1]research packet jz-packet.md (14 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED — real identity: USS *Rall* — http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/r/rall.html (loaded NHHC DANFS, L0: "Rall (DE-304)")

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Evidence ID

   uss-rall-de304-pkt-jz-packet-md

2. [2]DANFS, Rall (DE-304) (Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division; verbatim hazegray DANFS transcription - live NHHC page returns 404) [nhhc_danfs]

   Locator

   DANFS entry 'Rall (DE-304)' - namesake biography, spec block, service narrative, disposition

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   DANFS record for this hull: laid down 24 May 1943; launched 23 September [1943] by Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. R. R. Rall, widow of the namesake; commissioned 8 April 1944, Lt. Comdr. C. B. Taylor in command. Spec block: Evarts class, 1,140 t, 289 ft 5 in, 35 ft 1 in beam, 8 ft 3 in draft, 22 kt, complement 156, 3x3-in + 8 dcp + 1 hedgehog + 2 dct. Service: shakedown off California April-May; departed San Francisco 9 June escorting City of Dalhart (IX-156), arrived Pearl Harbor 18 June; three months supporting the Pacific Submarine Training Command; sortied 23 September 1944 escorting troop ships carrying the Ulithi occupation force, arrived 8 October; patrol/escort Ulithi and Palaus; November escort group protecting TG 30.8 oilers supporting the Leyte Gulf landings, rode out a typhoon; 20 November credited with sinking the Japanese midget submarine that torpedoed Mississinewa (AO-59) in Ulithi Lagoon after laying depth-charge patterns at swirls; December patrol then escorted two escort carriers to the Admiralty Islands with Halloran (DE-305); arrived Hawaii for Christmas; Iwo Jima rehearsals at Maui and Kahoolawe; convoyed Iwo Jima garrison troops; Espiritu Santo arriving 19 March; sortied 25 March screening transports carrying the Floating Reserve (27th Army Division) for Okinawa; destroyed a floating mine by gunfire en route; arrived off Okinawa 9 April; screening station about 10 miles southeast of Ie Shima; on 12 April tracked 14 air attacks in three hours, splashed three kamikazes, a fifth crashed the starboard side aft and its 500-lb bomb exploded about 15 feet off the port side - 21 dead and 38 wounded; wounded transferred alongside Pinkney (APH-2) at Hagushi Beach; ComCortDiv 61 shifted pennant to Finnegan (DE-307); Kerama Retto 15 April; Ulithi 23 April; arrived Seattle 18 May; repairs and overhaul; San Diego 12 July; Pearl Harbor 5 August; departed 3 September via San Pedro and the Panama Canal; arrived Charleston Navy Yard 24 September; decommissioned 11 December 1945; struck from the Naval Register 3 January 1946; hulk sold for scrap 18 March 1947. Three battle stars. Namesake: Lt.(jg) Richard Redner Rall, MC, USNR - born Battle Creek, Mich., 12 May 1909; Assistant Surgeon USNR 29 March 1935; regular Navy commission 10 March 1937; Navy hospitals at Guam and Mare Island; reported to Pennsylvania (BB-38) May 1941; killed in action in the Pearl Harbor attack 7 December 1941.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   1943-1947

   Population

   Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1943-44; USN crew 1944-45 (DANFS complement 156)

   Limitations

   DANFS documents construction, specifications, and service history - not materials or asbestos content. The entry carries internal date inconsistencies for the Iwo Jima leg (underway '26 February', transports 'arrived on 21 March' - impossible against its own 'Espiritu Santo, arriving 19 March' sentence); the ship's own war history reads a 6 February departure and a 2 March Iwo Jima arrival and is carried for that leg - see gaps. DANFS's 'At 1925 on 12 April, the ship went to General Quarters' conflicts with the war history's 1325. Live NHHC page returns 404; verbatim mirror transcription cited.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-01

3. [3]History of the U.S.S. RALL (DE-304), ship-submitted official war history (7 typewritten pages, facsimile scan hosted by NavSource; the same document exists as NARA file unit 'USS RALL - War History', NARA ID 77681400, microfilm roll A2083) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource DE-304 page, 'War History' link (06304wh.jpg, 6-panel scan, 7 pages): commissioning paragraph through Charleston arrival

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Primary document submitted by the ship at war's end, read at image level: placed in commission 8 April 1944 at Mare Island Navy Yard by Captain F. W. Scanland, USN, Captain of the Yard, by direction of Commandant Rear Admiral M. S. Tisdale; Lt. Comdr. C. B. Taylor, USNR, assumed command with Lt. J. B. O'Donnell, USNR, Executive Officer; initial complement 10 officers, 5 CPOs, 52 PO ratings, 138 non-rated men. Builder's trials in San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay from 16 April; ordered by Commander Fleet Operational Training Command, Treasure Island, to San Diego for shakedown, arriving 26 April (ComCortDiv 61, Commander Herman Reich, USNR, hoisted his pennant the same day); shakedown 27 April-21 May (ASW and gunnery); post-shakedown availability at San Francisco; Treasure Island 2 June; departed San Francisco 9 June escorting City of Dalhart (IX-156), arrived Pearl Harbor 18 June; attached to ComSubTraPac - three months training U.S. submarines in the Oahu area, plus a Midway trip escorting Fulton (AS-11) and an Eniwetok trip. Sortied 23 September 1944 in a Third Fleet task group escorting the Ulithi Garrison Force, arrived Ulithi Lagoon 8 October; escorted Allioth (AK-109) to Kossol Passage 17-20 October. Sortied 2 November with oiler task group TG 30.8 fueling Halsey's Third Fleet supporting the Leyte landings, through the perimeter of a typhoon off the Philippines/Formosa, back to Ulithi 15 November. 20 November: Mississinewa (AO-59) torpedoed by a midget submarine in Ulithi Lagoon; Rall got underway immediately, ran down a swirl reported by Mobile and Biloxi, dropped the first depth charge of the action plus two more on a second pass; Halloran recovered two swimming men and subsequent attacks brought up debris with Japanese writing - 'evidence indicated' one midget submarine sunk. 24-29 November resumed Third Fleet oiler operations; 5-12 December with Halloran escorted two CVEs to Manus (first equator crossing, Shellback ceremonies); 14 December sortied for Pearl Harbor, arriving Christmas Eve. Maintenance, overhaul, training and escort duty off Oahu to 6 February 1945; detached Third Fleet, attached Fifth Fleet; Maui/Kahoolawe invasion rehearsals. 'On the 6th of February' underway in the escort group convoying the Iwo Jima Garrison Troops via Eniwetok; arrived in an area about 100 miles southeast of Iwo Jima 23 February, cruised there until 1 March, proceeded to Iwo Jima arriving 2 March; joined a transport group to Saipan, then Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, arriving 19 March 1945; logistics to 25 March; underway 25 March in the anti-submarine screen of transports carrying the Expeditionary Force Floating Reserve (27th Army Division); overnight Ulithi, sortied 4 April for the Nansei Shoto; prosecuted an underwater contact in a U.S.-submarine zone (no charges dropped; contact believed enemy - failed challenges, evasive tactics); exploded a floating mine by gunfire the same day; arrived Okinawa 9 April 'one year and a day after the RALL's commissioning'; screening station about ten miles southwest of Ie Shima. 'On the 12th of April, at 1325, the ship, alerted by "Air Flash Red", went to General Quarters'; fourteen separate air attacks tracked in three hours; five-plane raid; all guns opened fire, three planes down, a fourth splashed by a nearby cruiser, the fifth - a kamikaze hit repeatedly - crashed the starboard side aft and its 500-lb bomb went through the ship below the main deck aft and exploded alongside the port side; '21 enlisted men were killed, 36 enlisted men wounded and 2 officers wounded' (= 21 killed, 38 wounded); damage control extinguished fires and effected temporary repairs; headed to Hagushi Beach under own power, moored alongside Pinkney (APH-2), wounded transferred, dead removed next morning for burial on Okinawa. Temporary patches and bracing; 15 April Commander Herman Reich transferred his pennant to Finnegan (DE-307); Kerama Retto anchorage; night of 18 April fired on a twin-engine enemy bomber overhead, no hits observed; ordered to Ulithi 19 April, arriving 23 April; further temporary structural repairs, then Pearl Harbor and Seattle, arriving 18 May. 'Permanent repairs, overhaul and alterations started at once at Todd Shipyards Inc., Seattle, Washington.' 25 June command passed to Lcdr. James B. O'Donnell, USNR (Lt. E. R. Silvers Jr., USNR, XO); ready for sea 12 July; San Diego refresher training; steamed out 28 July, Pearl Harbor 5 August; routine training off Oahu until cessation of hostilities 14 August and additional training after. Ordered to Charleston, S.C., via San Pedro and the Panama Canal for decommissioning; sailed from Pearl Harbor 3 September with other destroyer escorts ('running lights lit at night, smoking lamp lit topside 24 hours'); San Pedro 9-11 September; transited the Panama Canal 19 September; arrived Charleston 24 September, proceeded to the Charleston Navy Yard for decommissioning.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   1943-1945

   Population

   USN crew 1944-45 (initial complement 205 per this document); Mare Island construction trades 1943-44; Todd Shipyards Seattle repair workforce May-July 1945; Charleston Navy Yard decommissioning workforce Sept-Dec 1945

   Limitations

   Facsimile of an official document hosted on a volunteer archive - content is the ship's own submission read at image level; seam-truncated words were reconstructed where legible and any illegible residue was not asserted. Documents yard-period events (post-shakedown availability at San Francisco, Todd Shipyards Inc. Seattle permanent repairs/overhaul/alterations May-12 July 1945, Charleston Navy Yard decommissioning availability) but no materials or asbestos content. Differs from DANFS in granularity; its 6 February Iwo-convoy departure, 2 March Iwo Jima arrival, 1325 GQ, and 'southwest of Ie Shima' station conflict with DANFS's 26 February / 21 March / 1925 / southeast readings - carried as documented conflicts in gaps, war history preferred for the Iwo Jima leg because DANFS's own dates are internally impossible.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-02

4. [4]NavSource Online Destroyer Escort Photo Archive, USS Rall (DE-304) page (volunteer archive; lead-level): building/operational data block, captioned USN/NARA photographs, commanding-officers roster [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource DE-304 page, 'Building and Operational Data' block, photo captions 0630402-0630413, commanding-officers table, awards ribbons

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   Photo-archive detail corroborating and extending DANFS: keel laid 24 May 1943 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo; launched and christened 23 September 1943 (sponsor Mrs. R. R. Rall; the yard commandant RAdm. W. L. Friedell appears in the christening caption); commissioned 8 April 1944 under Lcdr. C. B. Taylor; '12 April 1945: Badly damaged (21 dead, 31 wounded) in a kamikaze attack off Ie Shima, near Okinawa. She was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for this action'; decommissioned 11 December 1945 at the Charleston Navy Yard 'after 1 year and 8 months of service'; struck from the NVR 3 January 1946; hulk sold 18 March 1947, scrapped. Captioned USN photographs (several NARA-credited): DE-304-4807-43 and DE-304-4806-43 - 2 July 1943 bow and stern views on the Mare Island building ways with Crowley (DE-303) alongside; christening series 23 September 1943 (son Byron holds the ceremonial bottle); DE-304-2487-44/-2489-44 and NARA CP-DE-304 19-LCM-89973 / 19-N-89973 - off Treasure Island and San Francisco Bay 23 April 1944; NARA 80-G-330116 - 12 April 1945 off Kerama Retto after the kamikaze damage. Flag hoist/radio call sign N-T-B-R. Awards: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive), Navy Unit Commendation, American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific w/ 3 stars, WWII Victory. CO roster: Lcdr. Crittenden Battelle Taylor, USNR (8 Apr 1944 - 25 Jun 1945); Lcdr. James B. O'Donnell, USNR (25 Jun 1945 - 11 Dec 1945). Class spec block: GMT (diesel-electric tandem motor drive, short hull, 3-in guns); 1,140 t light / 1,430 t full; 283 ft 6 in wl / 289 ft 5 in oa; beam 35 ft 0 in; draft 11 ft 0 in limit; 4 GM 16-278A diesels with electric drive, 6,000 shp, 2 screws; 19 kt; range 4,150 nm at 12 kt; complement 15/183.

   Verification

   partial

   Role

   archival_lead

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   1943-1947

   Population

   Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1943-44; USN crew 1944-45

   Limitations

   Volunteer-maintained photo archive - lead-level documentation, not an official record; dates, roster, and captions are unverified against the underlying USN/NARA originals. Its '31 wounded' conflicts with DANFS and the ship's own war history (38 wounded: 36 enlisted + 2 officers) - carried in gaps; its 19 kt class speed conflicts with DANFS's 22 kt. The christening caption names RAdm. W. L. Friedell as yard commandant while the war history names RAdm. M. S. Tisdale as commandant directing the April 1944 commissioning - Friedell was Mare Island commandant until mid-1944, so the two captions are consistent (different dates), not a conflict. Nothing on materials aboard.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-03

5. [5]Evarts-class GMT design data (DANFS spec block + NavSource class spec block: 4 GM 16-278A diesel engines, tandem-motor electric drive, 6,000 shp, no propulsion boilers or steam plant) + Atlas shipyards.json record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' (tier 2; product rows incl. Unibestos, Marinite, Transite, Kaylo, Careytemp, gaskets, packing, refractory; WWII peak employment 46,000; Collins v. Plant Insulation litigation row) + 'todd-shipyards' (tier 2; Herring v. Texaco and Hansen v. Johns-Manville litigation rows) [other_primary]

   Locator

   DANFS spec block (cl. Evarts, 22 kt); NavSource DE-304 spec block (GMT drive, 4 GM 16-278A, 6,000 shp); shipyards.json 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' and 'todd-shipyards' records

   Finding type

   asbestos_application

   Finding

   Era/design inference for a diesel-electric escort built at a U.S. Navy yard in 1943-44: the GMT machinery plant - four General Motors 16-278A diesel engines in tandem with electric drive, 2 shafts, 6,000 shp - has NO propulsion boilers and no steam system, so the heavy steam-ship asbestos categories (boiler lagging, steam-line insulation) do not apply. Plausible period applications concentrate in diesel exhaust/muffler insulation, machinery gaskets and packing, electrical insulation (a full diesel-electric drive plant), deck coverings, accommodation insulation, and friction linings on deck machinery. Builder-yard context: Mare Island Navy Yard was one of four navy yards building Evarts-class DEs (with Boston, Puget Sound, and Philadelphia); the Atlas yard dataset documents Mare Island at tier 2 with product rows naming Unibestos, Marinite boards, Transite pipe, Kaylo, Careytemp, Gold Bond, Super 66, pump/valve packing, gaskets, bonnet insulation and refractory materials, plus a 1998 EIS/EIR record of ACM in yard buildings and a litigation row (Collins v. Plant Insulation, welder at Mare Island 1976-94). The documented 1945 battle-damage repair yard, Todd Shipyards Inc. Seattle, is a tier-2 corporate yard record carrying litigation rows for asbestos insulation tear-out/installation (Hansen v. Johns-Manville, 5th Cir. 1984) and Seattle-area operations (Herring v. Texaco, Wash. 2007).

   Verification

   inferred

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   1943 (construction); 1944-45 (service and repair)

   Population

   Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1943-44; Todd Shipyards Seattle repair workforce May-July 1945; USN crew 1944-45

   Limitations

   Class/era and builder/repair-yard inference only - not a ship-specific finding. No BuShips materials specification or General Information Book page for DE-304 was retrieved; the product list is an era inference and does not establish asbestos presence, quantity, or location aboard this hull. Yard-level product and litigation rows describe the facilities, not this hull's materials.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-04

6. [6]CourtListener API v4 sweep (opinion index type=o; RECAP docket index type=r) for exact name 'USS Rall' and hull number 'DE-304' via cl-auth-search.py (authenticated, fleet-paced) [court_record]

   Locator

   search_ledger rows sl-uss-rall-de304-06 through -09

   Finding type

   litigation_documented

   Finding

   CourtListener sweep status at drafting: the fleet-wide pacing budget (~114/hr shared across concurrent fleet batches) returned 'momentarily spent' on five spaced attempts across the session (the same posture same-day sister batch-4185 encountered); the four planned queries ('"USS Rall"' type=o, '"DE-304"' type=o, '"USS Rall"' type=r, '"DE-304"' type=r) are carried as pending in search_ledger rows sl-uss-rall-de304-06 through -09 rather than retried into a ban. No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull located - sweep incomplete.

   Verification

   partial

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   2026-09-28

   Limitations

   Sweep covers only CourtListener's indexed opinions and RECAP dockets; it does not cover state-court records, asbestos trust claims, VA claims, or non-U.S. jurisdictions. 'Rall' is a distinctive surname with a low collision surface, but 'DE-304' is a generic token (also a course-catalog number) and any hit requires collision classification rather than automatic attribution. Sweep status is per-query in the search ledger.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-05

7. [7]Batch-4212 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS + hazegray/HyperWar mirrors, NVR, NavSource, the ship-submitted war-history scan, NARA catalog (muster rolls, war diaries, action reports, war history), Atlas shipyard dataset, CourtListener API v4 [other_primary]

   Locator

   search_ledger rows sl-uss-rall-de304-01 through -13

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no ACM survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, material-condition report, or litigation naming this hull was found in the public sources searched. No preservation-era documentation can exist - the hull was sold for scrap in March 1947 and was never a museum, memorial, or reserve-fleet asset after disposal. Marketing ship lists maintained by law firms do name USS Rall (DE-304) among Navy hulls (asbestos-ships.com carries a dedicated page; mesotheliomahelp.org and Shepard O'Donnell list her by name and hull number) - those are non-citable marketing pages, not evidence, and are logged as exclusions only.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   negative_finding

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   2026-09-28

   Limitations

   Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard. The hull was scrapped in 1947, so no present-day survey is possible; whether era materials aboard contained asbestos is undocumented in either direction. Construction-era yard records, per-vessel BuShips specifications, and the contemporaneous action reports are paper leads only (ev-07).

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-06

8. [8]NARA catalog records for DE-304: muster-rolls file unit 'Rall (DE-304), 4/8/44-12/11/45' (NARA ID 192175161, microfilm roll 6413, digitized via the Ancestry partnership); 'USS RALL - War History' file unit (NARA ID 77681400, roll A2083); monthly 'USS RALL - War Diary' file units covering 9/44, 12/44, 1/45, 2/45, 3/45, 5/45, 6/45-8/45, 9/45, 10/45 in the WWII War Diaries series; and three contemporaneous action reports - 'USS Rall - Rep of ops in support of the occupation of Okinawa Jima, Ryukyu Is, 4/9-19/45, including enemy suicide crash dive on 4/12/45' (NARA ID 633407467, roll A1542), 'USS Rall - Rep of AA act off Okinawa Jima, Ryukyu Is on 4/12/45' (NARA ID 633407462, roll A1542), and 'USS RALL & USS HALLORAN - Rep of A/S Act in Ulithi Lagoon, Carolines on 11/20/44' (NARA ID 78704968, roll A1286) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NARA catalog: muster-roll unit NARA ID 192175161 (microfilm roll 6413); war-diary units incl. NARA IDs 139757759 (9/44), 139834913 (12/44), 139895563 (1/45), 139929170 (2/45), 139998767 (3/45), 101773603 (5/45), 77497698 (6-8/45), 77524259 (9/45), 77554065 (10/45); action reports NARA IDs 633407467, 633407462, 78704968; war history NARA ID 77681400

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   Hull-specific federal records exist and are retrievable: (1) muster rolls for DE-304 spanning 8 April 1944-11 December 1945 (the full commissioned life), on microfilm roll 6413 and digitized via the Ancestry partnership - a personnel roster source for reconstructing the exposed population; (2) monthly war-diary file units for RALL covering September 1944-October 1945 in the WWII War Diaries series (several digitized on Fold3 publication 750); (3) three contemporaneous ship-submitted action reports - the 20 November 1944 Ulithi Lagoon antisubmarine action (joint with Halloran; the midget-submarine kill), the 9-19 April 1945 Okinawa operations report including the 12 April suicide crash, and the 12 April 1945 AA action report - the primary documents behind the war-history narrative; (4) the 'USS RALL - War History' file unit itself (roll A2083), the same document NavSource hosts as a scan. Not yet located in digitized form: RG 19 BuShips contract specifications / General Information Books covering DE-304's construction at Mare Island Navy Yard, RG 24 deck logs, and Mare Island production records (RG 181 San Francisco entry series) - paper leads for hull-level material specifications.

   Verification

   partial

   Role

   archival_lead

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-28

   Study period

   1944-1945 (records); 2026 (catalog enumeration)

   Population

   USN enlisted crew 1944-45 (muster-roll population); construction workforce (Mare Island Navy Yard, RG 181 lead)

   Limitations

   The catalog entries were enumerated via the NARA catalog search endpoint; the individual file units were not opened at document level except the war-history scan hosted by NavSource, and their contents are otherwise unknown. Muster rolls, war diaries, and action reports document personnel, operations, and battle damage - they contain no materials data themselves and establish nothing about asbestos aboard. RG 19/RG 181 holdings were identified as series-level leads, not pulled.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-rall-de304-07