The USS Kadashan Bay (CVE-76) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier launched on December 11, 1943. It was commissioned on January 18, the following year with the hull number CVE-76 under Capt. R. N. Hunter’s command and served in the US Navy for 2 years until it was decommissioned on 14 June 1946. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 916 men on board and had its main missions in Manus, San Diego, Palaus, Pearl Harbor, Leyte, Tulagi, and Espiritu Santo.
With such an eventful history it’s hard to say how many Navy personnel deployed on the USS Kadashan Bay (CVE-76) got to breathe in the asbestos dust emanating from the many areas of the vessel lined with asbestos, but the number is most certainly too high. Asbestos was used in the external part of the propulsion system for insulation as well as for electrical components, pipes, boilers, condensers, and turbines. After the decommissioning, the ship was sold for scrapping. For the services brought to the country during World War II, the USS Kadashan Bay received 2 battle stars.
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