Who This Page Covers

U.S. Navy enlisted personnel and Navy civilian shipyard workers whose duties allegedly involved handling shipboard transformers, motor-generators, switchgear, and electrical-distribution components on Navy ships and at Navy shipyards during the asbestos era:

  • Electrician’s Mate (EM) — primary shipboard rating for power-distribution equipment, transformers, and motor-generators
  • Interior Communications Electrician (IC) — shipboard switchboards, panels, and interior electrical distribution
  • Electronics Technician (ET) — radio, radar, and electronic-warfare systems containing asbestos-bearing electrical components
  • Engineman (EN) — main propulsion and auxiliary engineering involving electrical-distribution servicing
  • Machinist’s Mate (MM) — auxiliary machinery work, including motor-generator servicing
  • Damage Controlman (DC) — emergency electrical-system repair
  • Hull Technician (HT) — structural and shipfitting work in machinery spaces with transformer-bearing equipment
  • Boilerman / Boiler Tech (BT) — engineering spaces sharing common asbestos exposure with electrical-distribution components
  • Naval Civilian Shipyard Workers — Norfolk, Mare Island, Long Beach, Philadelphia, Charleston, Portsmouth, Pearl Harbor, Puget Sound

Shipboard Transformer-Room Component Coverage

The Navy procured shipboard transformers, switchgear, motor-generators, and electrical-distribution equipment from Westinghouse Electric Corporation, General Electric, Allis-Chalmers, Federal Pacific, McGraw-Edison / Pennsylvania Transformer Division, Cooper Power Systems, and Niagara Transformer — all of whom allegedly used asbestos-bearing internal components consistent with the broader transformer industry during the 1950s-1980s asbestos era. See the Navy Ship Transformer Room — Asbestos Exposure umbrella reference on navyshipexposure.com for the full shipboard-exposure framework.

Component-Supply Crosswalk

Shipboard and Shipyard Exposure Pathways

  • Routine transformer maintenance at sea — gasket inspection, bushing service, oil sampling, dryout operations
  • Switchgear and breaker servicing — replacing arc chutes, handling asbestos-bearing barrier insulators
  • Motor-generator overhaul — shipboard motor-generator coil rewinding
  • Navy shipyard overhaul and refurbishment — major transformer/switchgear dismantling, rewinding, and rebuild at Navy shipyards
  • Decommissioning and equipment removal — extracting aged asbestos-bearing transformer and electrical components during ship decommissioning
  • Battle damage repair — emergency electrical-system restoration involving aged asbestos-bearing equipment
  • In-port shore-power coupling work — shipboard-to-shore power transformer and switchgear interfaces

VA Claims for Navy Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure from Navy ship service. Electrician’s Mates, Interior Communications Electricians, Electronics Technicians, and related Navy ratings who served aboard Navy ships during the asbestos era and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.

Workers in this trade category — if diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related disease — may have legal rights. Asbestos-related diseases can develop silently for 20, 30, or even 40 years after initial exposure.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956

All consultations are free. No fee unless a financial recovery is made on your behalf.

This information reflects exposure pathways and product documentation drawn from publicly filed asbestos litigation, federal regulatory records, and industry archives. It does not constitute a finding of fact or liability with respect to any specific manufacturer, supplier, facility operator, utility, or contractor.