The USS Barnes (CVE-7) was an Attacker-class escort carrier laid down on April 17, 1941, and launched on September 27, the same year. It was commissioned on September 30, 1942, as HMS Attacker with the hull number D-02 under the United Kingdom’s flag and served in the Royal Navy for 4 years until it was decommissioned on January 5, 1946. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 646 men on board and had its main missions in Salerno, Norfolk, southern France, and Singapore. After the decommissioning, the ship was transferred back to the USA, struck from the Navy Register on February 26, 1946, and sold for scrapping in May 1980 in Hong Kong. Until the 1970s asbestos was commonly used by the Navy in a wide range of shipbuilding materials. During World War II and the decades that followed millions of Americans worked at shipyards and were exposed to asbestos. Some veterans are only now being diagnosed with lung cancer or several other severe respiratory diseases.
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