The USS Arlington (AGMR-2) was a Saipan-class aircraft carrier converted to a Major Communications Relay Ship, commissioned in 1946. The vessel served the country for 23 years and 6 months, until she was decommissioned in 1970. She made her first patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin, providing reliable message handling for ships of the 7th Fleet in support of combat operations. Additionally, the carrier assisted ships in repairing and optimizing the use of their electronic equipment. In 1968, the ship departed Hawaii in TF 130, the Manned Spacecraft Recovery Force, Pacific. She participated in the recovery of Apollo 8 as the primary communications relay ship for the landing area. In 1969, the vessel resumed direct communications support for naval units in the Gulf of Tonkin and was assigned as the primary landing area communications relay ship for the Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 recovery area, returning to the Vietnamese coast afterward. The USS Arlington was stricken from the Naval Register in 1975. Like all ships built during the 1940s, the carrier’s construction heavily utilized asbestos, putting its personnel at risk of asbestos exposure and developing diseases stemming from their contamination decades after service.
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