The USS Olmsted (APA-188) was a Haskell-class attack transport ship laid down on April 11, 1944, at Kaiser Shipbuilding Corp, Vancouver, WA. It was launched on July 4, the same year. It was commissioned on September 5, 1944, under CAPT Clarence L. C. Atkeson Jr.’s command, with the hull number APA-188 and it served the US Navy for 3 years until it was decommissioned on February 21, 1947. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 536 people on board and had its main missions in the Asiatic Pacific Theater and participated in the Okinawa Gunto operation. Most of the asbestos exposure aboard this ship occurred in engineering spaces and boiler rooms. After the decommissioning at Norfolk, the ship was struck from the Naval Register on July 1, 1960. The ship was redesignated as Amphibious Transport (LPA-188) in January 1969 and was finally sold for scrapping in August 1981. Throughout much of the 20th century, the U.S. Navy treasured asbestos’s fire-resistant and durable properties. Unfortunately, asbestos turned out to be toxic and there were serious long-term consequences to the short-term benefits it provided.
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