The USS Reno (CL-96) was an Atlanta-class light cruiser laid down on August 1, 1941, and launched on December 23, the following year. It was commissioned on December 28, 1943, under Capt. Ralph C. Alexander’s command with the hull number CL-96 and served in the U.S. Navy for 3 years until it was decommissioned on November 4, 1946. During its activities, the ship carried a complement of 688 people on board and had its main missions in Luzon, San Diego, Ulithi, Leyte, Manila, Iwo Jima, Guam, Nansei Shoto, Leyte, Charleston, and Formosa. After decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on March 1, 1959, and sold for scrapping in 1962 to Coal Export Corporation in New York. Although the health effects of asbestos have been known since the early 1900s, the shipbuilding industry continued to flourish many decades later. Revered for its incombustibility, low thermal conductivity, tensile strength, and high resistance to heat and chemical damage, asbestos earned the name “miracle mineral”. Its fibrous nature made it perfect for many products used aboard aircraft carriers, amphibious warships, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, escorts, frigates, minesweepers, submarines, auxiliary ships, and merchant marine ships built in the mid-20th century.
760-621-6147
