The USS Menard (APA-201) was built between July and October 1944 by Kaiser with the sponsorship of Miss Clarance Gustaveson and commissioned in October the same year. Following shakedown and amphibious training, she headed for the western Pacific on February the 22nd. She reached Okinawa on the 1st of April and took part in the battle as an off-load support cargo – a dangerous mission that saw her attacked by a Japanese suicide plane, which gave the ship a narrow miss thanks to the skill of her AA crew. Years following WW2, she took part in Magic Carpet, the Korean War and the First Indochina War as part of the 7th Fleet. She was decommissioned in October 1955 and after a long period in the berth scrapped into disposable razor blades beginning 1975.
Like with any attack cargo of the age, a lot of her interior was lined with asbestos for water and fireproofing. The pipes that ran throughout the ship had an asbestos jacket, so no area was exactly “safe”, but it is generally considered that the engine and radio rooms put their occupants at a particularly high risk of exposure.
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