The USS Hollandia (CVE-97) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier launched on April 28, 1944. It was commissioned on May 30, the same year with the hull number CVE-97 under Capt. Charles L. Lee’s command and served in the US Navy for 3 years until it was decommissioned on January 17, 1947. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 916 men on board and had its main missions in Espiritu Santo, Guam, Manus, San Diego, Cuba, Okinawa, and Pearl Harbor. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on April 1, 1960, and sold for scrapping the same year in Portland. For the services brought to the country during World War II, the USS Hollandia received 2 battle stars. One could have possibly been exposed to asbestos, either by being a part of the crew serving in the Navy, but also by being implicated in the process of building or dismantling ships and vessels. These processes involved the release of asbestos fibers into the air. Asbestos, a popular material within shipyards between World War II and the late-1970s, was used to insulate hulls, pipes, incinerators, and boilers and in materials such as gaskets, valves, and cement throughout the ships.
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