The USS Slater (DE-766) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort laid down on March 9, 1943, and launched on February 20, 1944. It was commissioned on May 1, 1944, with the hull number DE-766, and served in the U.S. Navy for 3 years until it was decommissioned on September 26, 1947. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 216 men on board and had its main missions in Florida, Key West, the United Kingdom, Cuba, Panama, San Diego, Norfolk, and Manila. After the decommissioning, the ship was transferred to Greece where it was renamed Aetos. In the shipyards involved in building naval vessels between 1930 and 1980, the job of cutting asbestos sheets, wrapping an asbestos cloth around pipes, and spreading cement onto asbestos cloth can release fibers into the air, where it could be inhaled by the workers and Navy service members. Because the dangers of asbestos were concealed by the manufacturers of those products for decades, shipyard workers were unaware that the materials they were handling contained carcinogenic minerals.
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