The USS ABSD-5 was an auxiliary floating dry-dock, which was laid down at Navy Yard, Mare Island, Vallejo, California on an unknown date. It was commissioned on June 15, 1944, under the command of John P. Millon. It was 825 feet long and carried a complement of 187 people. It conducted operations during World War II in the Pacific theater, at Guiuan, Samar, Philippine Islands. The date of the decommissioning is unknown, as well as the reclassification date. What is known for certain is the name after the ship was reclassified, which is AFDB-5. It was struck from the Naval Register on January 12, 1984. After the final disposition, its fate was completely unknown to the public audience. The most common locations to encounter asbestos on any Naval vessel were usually rooms with hot equipment or machinery such as engine rooms, boiler rooms, pump rooms, damage control rooms, and propulsion rooms. Many of these rooms also had poor ventilation systems, meaning that airborne asbestos fibers were usually at a higher concentration. Boiler operators, pipefitters, damage controlmen, electrician’s mates, fire control technicians, gunner’s mates, hull maintenance technicians, machinery repairmen, radiomen, Seabees, and others who frequently worked in these locations were at a very high risk of inhaling asbestos.
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