The USS Windsor (APA-55) was a Windsor-class attack transport laid down on July 23, 1942, and launched on December 28, the same year. It was commissioned on June 17, 1943, under Comdr. D. C. Woodward’s command with the hull number APA-55 and served in the US Navy for 3 years until it was decommissioned on March 4, 1946. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 552 people on board and had its main missions in Guam, Leyte, Kwajalein, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on April 12, 1946. The ship was scrapped in 1972 in Taiwan. For the services brought to the country during World War II, the USS Windsor received 5 battle stars.
Because of its affordability, tensile strength, and due to the property of being thermally inert, asbestos was included in hundreds of products used in U.S. Navy ships, as naval records, repair logs, war diaries, and historical documents have proven this. An overwhelming majority of the veterans who served in the U.S. Navy between the 1930s up to the mid-1970s entered in contact with asbestos while on active duty serving their country.