Evidence
9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).
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[1]research packet ke-packet.md (3 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-robert-brazier-de345-pkt-ke-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Robert Brazier (DE-345), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (verbatim hazegray/losthistory transcription; canonical NHHC page https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/r/robert-brazier.html serves 404 today - Wayback capture 20240524213132 verified, identical text) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, namesake biography + specifications block + full service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: namesake Robert Boyd Brazier (b. Tooele, Utah, 13 June 1916; enlisted 6 October 1939; Aviation Radioman Second Class, gunner of a Torpedo-Squadron-3 airplane, killed 4 June 1942 at the Battle of Midway; posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross). Specifications (John C. Butler class; dp. 1,745; l. 306'; b. 36'7"; dr. 13'4"; s. 24 k.; cpl. 217; a. 2 5", 4 40mm., 10 20mm., 2 dct., 8 dcp., 1 dcp. (hh.), 3 21" tt.). Laid down 16 November 1943 by Consolidated Steel Corp., Ltd., Orange, Tex.; launched 22 January 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Celia Brazier (mother); commissioned 18 May 1944, Lt. Comdr. Donald D. Snyder, Jr., USNR. Shakedown off Bermuda; New York 19 August 1944; Norfolk schoolship (Destroyer Training School), Bureau of Ordnance tests, flagship CortDiv 76; German-submarine hunt 27 August-7 September; TF 69 fast convoy to Italy, completed at New York 23 October; departed 10 November for the Pacific; Seeadler Harbor, Manus, 41 days out; Hollandia 26 December; Leyte 6 January 1945; escort Leyte-Kossol Roads-Hollandia to 19 February; Mindoro local defense (Mangarin Bay approaches, Subic Bay convoy lanes); ocean escort from 6 March; 7th Amphibious Force late April; Panay/Iloilo to 4 May; Mindanao invasion - screened Macajalar Bay landings 10 May, patrolled 11-13 May, Cebu supply-ship escort; anchored Macajalar Bay to 9 August; at Subic Bay at surrender; escort Subic Bay-Okinawa-Tokyo Bay September; Luzon 27 September; departed for the U.S. 28 November, San Pedro 17 December; San Diego, 19th Fleet inactivation; decommissioned 16 September 1946; Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego then Bremerton; struck from the Navy list 1 January 1968; 'subsequently destroyed as a target.' One battle star for World War II.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1969
- Population
- Consolidated Steel (Orange) construction trades 1943-44; wartime and postwar crew (DANFS design complement 217)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, namesake, service history, and specifications, not materials or asbestos content - the narrative contains no asbestos-related content whatsoever. Mirror transcription cited because the live NHHC page returns 404 (standing link rot, BATCH-01); a Wayback capture of the canonical NHHC page (2024-05-24) carries identical text. DANFS does not state the target sinking's date or circumstances ('subsequently destroyed as a target').
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-01
-
[3]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 1 (NAVSHIPS 250-010, 1945; downgraded from Confidential to Restricted 5 January 1946), Destroyer-Escort Vessels (DE) individual-ship list, entry 28 (shipscribe.com scan; image-only PDF, read as page images) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Ships' Data 1945 Vol. 1, printed pp. 238-239, DE individual-ship list entry 28 + footnote key (pp. 234-235 design-group table notes)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Contemporaneous official BuShips table row for this hull (1945 data): 'BRAZIER, ROBERT' DE345, group design WGT; built by Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Tex.; contract price of hull and machinery $2,063,000 (marker 4 = cost plus fixed fee); contract signed Aug. 7, 1942; keel laid Nov. 16, 1943; ship launched Jan. 22, 1944; contract date of completion Mar. 30, 1944; date of preliminary acceptance May 17, 1944; date of first commission May 18, 1944. The name carries footnote marker 2 - the table's footnote key reads '1 Turbines built by Westinghouse. 2 Turbines built by G. E.' - i.e., BuShips records this hull's turbines as G.E.-built, not Westinghouse (GE and Westinghouse units 'interchangeable as units' per the design-group table note).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1942-1945
- Population
- Consolidated Steel (Orange) construction trades 1943-44
- Limitations
- Contemporaneous official construction/acceptance data, not a materials or asbestos record - establishes builder, contract dates/cost, design group, and turbine manufacturer for this hull, not what insulation products were installed. Marker read visually from the scanned table at 300 dpi (image-only PDF; no OCR text layer). Does not state boiler manufacturer (the design-group table lists 'D' express boilers; boiler maker for the DE339-372 block rests on the secondary navypedia compilation - see ev-03).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-02
-
[4]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 1 (1945), DE design-group table row 6 (WGT) + Navypedia 'WGT' member table boiler-block map [other_primary]
- Locator
- Ships' Data 1945 Vol. 1, printed pp. 234-235 (DE design-group table, row 6 WGT); navypedia.org us_de_tev_wgt.htm member row DE345 + machinery block map
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/class inference: DE-345 is documented in the BuShips individual-ship list as design group WGT ('geared-turbine drive, 5-inch guns' per the table's own symbol key). Group-6 machinery per the official table: 2 shafts; geared turbines, 12,000 shp; 2 'D' express boilers at 435 psi / 750 F; 306 ft oa; 1,350 t standard / 1,745 t full load; 24.3 kt; accommodations 15 officers/207 enlisted. A private-yard-built geared-steam-turbine escort completed May 1944 would have carried era-standard asbestos applications appropriate to a steam plant: boiler and steam-drum insulation, steam-line lagging between boiler rooms and turbines, valve and flange gaskets, machinery packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. Boiler maker per the secondary navypedia WGT block map: Combustion Engineering for DE339-372 and 402-424 (Babcock & Wilcox for the later blocks).
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Consolidated Steel (Orange) construction trades 1943-44; crew 1944-1946
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - NOT a hull-specific asbestos finding. The BuShips tables document design group and machinery, not insulation materials; navypedia is a secondary compilation (boiler-block map unverified against contract documents). Does not quantify material, does not establish that any specific product was or was not installed aboard this hull, and does not establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-03
-
[5]Fleischer WE, Viles FJ Jr, Gade RL, Drinker P, 'A health survey of pipe covering operations in constructing naval vessels,' J Ind Hyg Toxicol. 1946 Jan;28:9-16 (PMID 21016030; verified via NLM eutils esummary) [other_primary]
- Locator
- J Ind Hyg Toxicol 1946;28:9-16, materials section (pipe covering composition); PubMed record PMID 21016030
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Contemporaneous U.S. government industrial-health survey of WWII naval ship construction: chest X-ray examinations of 1,074 pipe coverers at two Government Navy Yards and two Navy Contract Yards, with dust counts and material analysis. The survey documents that 'an important ingredient of pipe covering material used on U. S. Navy vessels is amosite' (a fibrous asbestos mineral), and that 'much asbestos cloth and asbestos cement were likewise used' - establishing amosite-asbestos insulation products as frequently employed materials in Navy vessel construction of the era in which this hull was built.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Navy yard and Navy-contract-yard pipe coverers, WWII construction era
- Limitations
- Era-level government documentation of the material standard in naval ship construction, not a hull record: the surveyed yards are anonymized (Government Yards 'A' and 'B', Contract Yards 'C' and 'D'), so Consolidated Steel's inclusion cannot be confirmed; the study covers pipe-covering fabrication/installation workers, not ship's crew. Does not establish that amosite or any specific product was installed aboard DE-345, does not quantify, and does not establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-04
-
[6]NavSource Naval History, Destroyer Escort Photo Index DE-345 USS Robert Brazier - archive page with building/operational data, USN photo captions (USN 271355 et al.), commanding-officer roster, awards, and a link to a scan of the ship-submitted 'official War History' [other_primary]
- Locator
- navsource.net/archives/06/345.htm - Building and Operational Data, CO roster, 'War History' scan link (HTTP 500 on fetch)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads for this hull: NavSource's DE-345 index (navsource.net mirror - the .org host was unreachable from this environment) corroborates the build/ops chronology (keel 16 November 1943; launch 22 January 1944; commission 18 May 1944; decommission 16 September 1946 at San Diego; struck from the NVR 1 January 1968; 'Sunk as a target off the California coast' 9 January 1969), lists the commanding-officer roster (Lcdr. Donald D. Snyder Jr. USNR 18 May 1944-4 Dec 1945; Lcdr. Paul R. O'Brien USNR to 23 Dec 1945; Lcdr. Joseph C. Spitler USN to 16 Sep 1946), carries USN photo captions (July 1944 underway, USN 271355), and links a scan of the ship-submitted 'official War History of USS Robert Brazier' - a primary operational record class held by NARA in the WWII war diaries/ship histories series.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1969
- Population
- Wartime crew
- Limitations
- NavSource is a secondary volunteer archive, not an authoritative source - the row is an archival lead, not a finding. The war-history scan (images/345/06345wh.jpg) returned HTTP 500 on retrieval this session; the underlying NARA-held original could not be located in the online catalog this pass (JS-rendered catalog returns the app shell). The 9 January 1969 target-sinking date is NavSource/secondary-compilation data - DANFS records only 'subsequently destroyed as a target.' The war history is an operational record (movements, operations), not a materials record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-05
-
[7]Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec LLC, No. 2:17-cv-00537 (W.D. Wash.) - pretrial-stage materials naming sister hull USS Brannon (DE-446), per the John C. Butler class profile's CourtListener review [court_record]
- Locator
- john-c-butler-class.class.json ev-john-c-butler-class-03 (class-profile review of W.D. Wash. 2:17-cv-00537 pretrial materials and exhibit list)
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Class-level litigation context (not hull evidence for DE-345): pretrial materials in Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec (W.D. Wash. 2:17-cv-00537) name USS Brannon (DE-446), a John C. Butler-class sister of this hull, and recite asbestos-insulation questions around a Griscom-Russell evaporator installed per Navy specifications - the class profile's review records the defendant's recital that 'Griscom-Russell supplied the Navy with the evaporator on Mr. Jack's ship in conformity to detailed precise specifications... without insulation,' with proposed testimony that asbestos was 'a critical material during WWII when the Navy installed the distiller on Mr. Jack's ship' while aboard Brannon it 'could have included fiberglass, mineral wool or other non-asbestos insulation.' The same docket's exhibit list identifies the Navy insulation-spec suite (BuShips Manual ch. 39 NAVSHIPS 250-000(39) 1945; Navy Dept spec 32F3a 'Felt, Insulating, Asbestos' Oct 1945; BuEng ch. 13; BUMED 1977 memo) as archival leads.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1940s (alleged exposure era); 2017+ (litigation)
- Population
- John C. Butler-class crews (class context)
- Limitations
- Sister-hull pretrial materials (pleading/exhibit-list stage), not adjudicated - no exposure finding for DE-446 and nothing at all for DE-345; included as class-level context showing the class's documented litigation posture and spec-suite archival leads. Independently verified only to the class-profile level this session (underlying exhibits not retrieved; CourtListener fleet pacing limited the session's budget).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-06
-
[8]CourtListener API v4 litigation sweep via cl-auth-search.py (authenticated, fleet-paced): exact-name '"USS Robert Brazier"' (type=o opinion index and type=r RECAP dockets), hull-number '"DE-345"' (type=o and type=r), and refinement '"Robert Brazier" asbestos' (type=o) [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-robert-brazier-de345-08 through sl-uss-robert-brazier-de345-14
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener sweep: exact-name query '"USS Robert Brazier"' returned 0 results in the opinion index (type=o) and 0 in RECAP dockets (type=r). Hull-number query '"DE-345"' returned 16 opinion-index hits - all string collisions on manual review (pension-plan ERISA, immigration, federal criminal, bankruptcy, Puerto Rican Spanish-language cases in which 'de' is a common word, and 19th-century SCOTUS reporter/pin-cite numerals; none asbestos-related, none naming a vessel) - and 195 RECAP-docket hits reviewed at top-20 depth: all non-asbestos federal dockets (criminal, trademark/IP, torts-to-land, marine insurance, employment), the 'DE 345' PACER docket-entry-number collision vector; none names this hull. Unqualified '"Robert Brazier"' (type=o) returned 8 hits - all person-name collisions on review, notably New America Shipbuilders, Inc. v. United States, 871 F.2d 1077 (Fed. Cir. 1989), in which 'Robert Brazier' is the shipbuilding company's president (a person, not the vessel; a government-contract dispute, not asbestos), plus criminal (Bogle v. State), commercial-remand (S.W.S. Erectors v. Infax), and employment (Kelley v. Airborne) matters. Refinement '"Robert Brazier" asbestos' (type=o) returned 0 hits. No qualifying asbestos litigation naming USS Robert Brazier (DE-345) located.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Opinion index swept for exact name, hull number, unqualified name, and a '"Robert Brazier" asbestos' refinement; docket index swept for exact name and hull number. The 195-hit 'DE-345' docket set was reviewed at top-20 depth only - the collision mechanism ('DE 345' = PACER docket-entry number) is consistent, but un-reviewed hits are not individually excluded. One planned query remains open: '"Robert Brazier"' unqualified on type=r dockets - fleet pacing budget spent before the fetch; surname collisions are expected (the name is a personal name, not ship-unique). The sweep does not cover state-court records beyond those RECAP-captured, asbestos trust claims, or non-U.S. jurisdictions.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-07
-
[9]Batch-4248 search ledger (this record): NHHC/DANFS transcription + Wayback capture; BuShips Ships' Data 1945 Vol. 1 (shipscribe scan, page-image read); navypedia WGT member table; Fleischer et al. 1946 (PMID 21016030, eutils-verified); NARA online catalog; NavSource photo archive (.net mirror); Naval Vessel Register; CourtListener exact-name, hull-number, and asbestos-refinement queries; general web search (law-firm boilerplate excluded) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-robert-brazier-de345-01 through sl-uss-robert-brazier-de345-15
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located for DE-345: no hull ACM survey, no abatement contract, no hazmat disclosure, and no qualifying asbestos litigation naming the vessel. Museum/drydock categories cannot apply because the ship was sunk as a target off California in January 1969 and is not preserved. Law-firm/mesothelioma-marketing pages publish templated 'asbestos exposure' content for this hull name/number (e.g., Shepard O'Donnell navy-veterans ship list, mesotheliomahelp.org destroyer-escorts page, freeasbestostesting.com, mesotheliomabook.com); reviewed and excluded as non-authoritative advertising content per the hard sourcing rule.
- 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 during the 1944-1946 commission - era materials aboard a steam-plant escort are plausible (see ev-03, ev-04) but ship-unproven. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-robert-brazier-de345-08