Evidence
6 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-6).
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[1]DANFS, Wickes II (DD-578) (builder, dates, service narrative, striking; verbatim transcription - live NHHC page serves 404; Wayback capture of the canonical NHHC page exists at web.archive.org/web/20251208115339) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, specifications block + service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down 15 April 1942 at Orange, Tex., by Consolidated Steel Co.; launched 13 September 1942 (sponsored by Miss Catherine Young Wickes); commissioned 16 June 1943, Lt. Comdr. William Y. Allen, Jr. in command. Specs block: 2,050 tons, 376'1" x 39'8" x 13'0", 35 kt, complement 273, Fletcher class. Shakedown Guantanamo Bay; post-shakedown availability Charleston, S.C. (Aug 1943); brief repairs in navy yards at Boston and Norfolk (Sep-Nov 1943); Aleutians Dec 1943-Aug 1944 incl. TF 94 bombardments of Paramushiro (4 Feb, 4 Mar 1944) and Matsuwa (26 May, 13 Jun 1944); repairs at Pier 36 San Francisco by Matson Navigation Co. under Mare Island Navy Yard oversight (Aug 1944); fighter-director outfitting alongside Yosemite (AD-19) at Pearl Harbor (Sep 1944); Leyte Gulf D-day screen and radar-picket/fighter-director duty (20-25 Oct 1944, TG 79.4); escort/screening Nov-Dec 1944; Lingayen assault Jan 1945 - CAP directed four kills 8 Jan, bomb near-miss wounded 15 topside 10 Jan; Bataan/Corregidor counter-battery fire Feb 1945; 51 days off Okinawa on radar picket (26 Mar-15 May 1945) - embarked fighter-director team's CAP 'engaged 42 enemy aircraft, destroyed eight, and damaged four' (DANFS), and separately the 22 Apr interception on Radar Picket Station 14 in which vectored Marine fighters 'knocked down 26 Japanese planes, probably splashed another pair, and damaged four' (both figures stated as written in DANFS); four kamikaze attacks on the ship, three casualties; 47-day overhaul at Hunters Point, San Francisco (Jul-Aug 1945). Out of commission in reserve 20 December 1945; never recommissioned; struck from the Navy list 1 November 1972; 'her hulk was later expended in ordnance tests.' Five battle stars.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1974
- Population
- Consolidated Steel construction trades 1942-43; wartime crew (design complement 273); reserve fleet 1945-72
- Limitations
- DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content. Yard availabilities (Charleston, Boston, Norfolk, Matson/Pier 36, Hunters Point, tender availability alongside Prairie AD-16 at Ulithi) are documented events but carry no asbestos-specific detail. Mirror transcription cited because the live NHHC page returns 404.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-wickes-dd578-01
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[2]NavSource Online, Destroyer Photo Index DD-578 USS Wickes (operational/building data block; Navy Unit Commendation citation text) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-578 page - 'Operational and Building Data' block + NUC transcription (live navsource.org unreachable to automated fetch; Wayback capture 2024-12-12 cited)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource data block for this hull: built by Consolidated Steel, Orange, TX (yard no. 203); contract awarded 9 September 1940 (NOD-1512); laid down 15 April 1942; launched 13 September 1942; commissioned 16 June 1943; decommissioned 20 December 1945; stricken 1 November 1972; fate 'Sunk as target 08 April 1974.' Page also carries the Secretary of the Navy's Navy Unit Commendation text for Wickes's service as a fighter-direction ship on radar picket during the Okinawa campaign, 27 March - 15 May 1945. As-built data: 2,924 tons full load, 376'5" oa x 39'7" x 13'9", GE geared turbines 60,000 shp, 2 screws, 38 kt, crew 273.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1940-1974
- Population
- Wartime crew; ordnance-test personnel 1974
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer-compiled photographic index citing official figures - secondary rather than primary; its dates agree with DANFS on every field. The sinking location and the ordnance-test program are not stated. NUC text quoted on the page is an official document transcription.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-wickes-dd578-02
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[3]U.S. Navy, Bureau of Ships Technical Manual, NAVSHIPS 250-000, Chapter 39 'Thermal Insulation' (1960, page date 15 April 1959) + Atlas shipyard dataset (Consolidated Steel Orange TX absent); NARA RG19 General Information Books archival lead [other_primary]
- Locator
- BuShips TM ch.39, sections 39-11 through 39-13; shipyards.json (37 yard_ids, no Consolidated Steel entry); NARA RG19 lead
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era inference: a Fletcher-class destroyer built 1942-43 with a four-boiler/60,000-shp steam plant would have carried period-standard asbestos boiler and steam-line insulation, turbine lagging, gaskets, packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. The BuShips Technical Manual insulation chapter enumerates the era-standard material suite: MIL-P-2781 pipe covering including 85% magnesia (~15% asbestos fiber) and amosite-fiber classes, roll asbestos felt MIL-I-15091, asbestos cloth/tape SS-C-466 (80-95% chrysotile) lagging, asbestos millboard HH-M-351, asbestos finishing cement, molded asbestos block. The documented yard availabilities for this hull (Charleston post-shakedown Aug 1943; Boston and Norfolk navy-yard repairs Sep-Nov 1943; Matson/Pier 36 repairs under Mare Island oversight Aug 1944; Prairie AD-16 tender availability May-Jun 1945; Hunters Point 47-day overhaul Jul-Aug 1945) are events in which such insulation would have been worked. Builder Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, TX, does not resolve against the Atlas shipyard dataset - no yard-level asbestos record attaches. NARA RG19 'General Information Books' per-vessel material specifications are an unretrieved archival lead for hull-level specs.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1945 (construction and service); 1945-1974 (reserve/target)
- Population
- Consolidated Steel construction trades 1942-43; navy-yard and tender repair workers 1943-45; crew 1943-45
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - NOT a hull-specific finding. The manual postdates this hull's active service but describes the insulation family in continuous Navy use from the magnesia era forward. Does not name this hull, does not quantify material aboard, and does not establish what was installed, disturbed, or retained. Retrieved PDF is a scan hosted in the Garlock bankruptcy Daubert-appendix repository. NARA GIB retrieval not performed.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-wickes-dd578-03
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[4]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2
- 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 - placing DD-578's construction (1942-43) and entire commissioned service (1943-45) inside the documented asbestos-use era.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- 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 report text not retrieved (gao.gov blocks automated fetch, HTTP 403) - content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-wickes-dd578-04
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[5]CourtListener API v4 sweep, authenticated (opinion index type=o; RECAP docket index type=r) + site-index substitutes [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-wickes-dd578-07 through sl-uss-wickes-dd578-11
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying litigation located for this hull. Exact-name searches 'USS Wickes' returned zero hits on both the opinion index (type=o) and the RECAP docket index (type=r, including document full text) - no opinion, docket, or RECAP document in the corpus literally contains 'USS Wickes'; the 'U.S.S. Wickes' variant also returned zero. Hull-number searches 'DD-578' returned 4 hits, all non-qualifying collisions: three non-asbestos dockets (civil rights, prisoner vacate, habeas - token in form/document numbering) and one Colorado tax opinion ('DD-578' a form/statute reference). Web-index substitutes (site:courtlistener.com, plus general queries on 'USS Wickes'/'DD-578' + asbestos/lawsuit/opinion) returned only name collisions: Wickes as a surname (Beshears v. Wickes habeas; Patricia Wickes v. Westfair Electric), the unrelated Wickes Companies / WCI Holdings securities-litigation family, and U.S. v. Wicks - none referencing any naval vessel. VA Board of Veterans' Appeals index queries located no decision naming DD-578 (nearest match, citation 1622519, names USS Wasp CV-18). A VA-news biography (Herbert V. Wiley) and a VeteranOfTheDay item (Bertram Brescher aboard USS Lea DD-118) concern the WWI-era Wickes-class hulls, not DD-578.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- A zero-result index sweep is not proof no case ever existed - RECAP coverage is incomplete, state-court and pre-RECAP asbestos dockets are underrepresented, and complaints naming hulls may sit in unscanned PDFs. The sweep covers the CourtListener opinion and RECAP docket corpora plus public web index and the VA BVA index; all planned queries completed (fleet pacing required spaced retries but no query was abandoned).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-wickes-dd578-05
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[6]Batch-3550 search ledger (this record): DANFS transcription (ibiblio + hazegray mirrors; NHHC live 404); NavSource via Wayback; NVR; Fletcher class profile; shipyards.json; CourtListener API v4 (authenticated); VA BVA index; web-index substitutes; law-firm/aggregator ship pages (excluded per sourcing rules) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-wickes-dd578-01 through sl-uss-wickes-dd578-12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No hull-specific asbestos survey, abatement record, materials inventory, hazmat disclosure, or qualifying litigation naming DD-578 located in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull was decommissioned in December 1945, spent 27 years in the reserve fleet, and was sunk as a target in April 1974 - before modern asbestos documentation practice - and never became a museum, so the disclosure channels that produced ship-specific records for preserved hulls do not exist here. The Fletcher class profile independently records no qualifying ship-specific asbestos record for any Fletcher hull as of 2026-09-16.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - era-standard applications are documented at class/era level (ev-03, ev-04). The hull no longer exists, so present-day ACM status is moot; whether original 1942 insulation survived into the service era, and what the 1945-72 reserve/mothball period did to the material suite, is undocumented.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-wickes-dd578-06