The USS Amick (DE-168) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort laid down on January 7, 1943, and launched on May 27, the same year. It was commissioned on July 26, 1943, under Lt. Comdr. Francis C. B. McCune’s command with the hull number DE-168 and served in the U.S. Navy for 4 years until it was decommissioned on May 16, 1947. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 216 men on board and had its main missions in Bermuda, Casablanca, Gibraltar, Bizerte, Palermo, Oran, Maine, Hawaii, California, Ulithi, Okinawa, the Marianas, the Carolines, and Palau Islands. After the decommissioning, the ship was transferred to Japan in 1955 where it was renamed JDS Asahi. In 1975, the ship was returned to the US Navy and struck from the Navy Register. The USS Amick (DE-168) was just one of many navy ships built at a time when the use of asbestos was abundant. Navy personnel who worked below decks in boiler and engine rooms, were especially vulnerable to asbestos exposure. Many remember sleeping in bunks underneath asbestos-covered pipes that required them to shake the dusty material off bunks on a daily basis.
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