USS Alabama
The USS Alabama was a South Dakota-class battleship that was launched from the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia on February 16th 1942. Her Atlantic service entailed venturing out towards Little Placentia Sound and Naval Station Argentina in Newfoundland where the massive battleship had finally arrived at Scapa Flow on May 19th 1943. She was reporting for service with Task Force 61 and had become a part of the British Home Fleet. They covered the reinforcement of the garrison on the island of Spitsbergen, which is located directly on the northern flank of the major convoy route to Russia. An operation that took the ship across the Arctic Circle where in mid-July the Alabama joined a task force in Operation Governor which was a planned diversion directed at southern Norway all in an effort to distract the German forces away from the real allied campaign that was headed towards Sicily.
During the operation the Alabama along with British forces had attempted to lure out the German battleship Tirpitz, the sister ship of the famous Bismarck, but the German navy didn’t want to tempt fate that day and stayed securely away from the fight. The USS Alabama left the British Home Fleet on August 1st, 1943 and along with the South Dakota and screening destroyers, she headed back to Norfolk, arriving back to Virginia on August 9th. She only stayed for repairs and departed Norfolk on August 20th, 1943 and headed for the Pacific Ocean. Traveling through the Panama Canal and joining forces along with carrier task groups, the battleship arrived in Fiji on the 7th of November where they gathered their intelligence specialists and planned their next moves. On November 11th the USS Alabama joined with Allied forces for Operation Galvanic, the assault on the Japanese-occupied Gilbert Islands.
She screened carriers as they launched attacks on the Marshall Islands to neutralize the Japanese airfields located there. Later, she joined in Operation Flintlock for the invasion of the Marshall Islands and along with five other battleships carried out the first Pacific gunfire strike from that type of warship. According to data sources, the ship shot down 22 enemy aircraft and never suffered any damage during its naval career. During the war the battleship USS Alabama participated in many more missions with great results and many heroic stories to be shared, the USS Alabama who has been laid to rest in the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama and was made an official National Historic Landmark in 1986. Amazingly, the USS Alabama never lost a single man during enemy action and acquired the nickname “Lucky A”. A Captain John Brown once stated, “Hell, we weren’t lucky, we were good”.
The USS Alabama faced many threats in combat, although dangers from violent weather or attacks by enemy forces were not the only present. Asbestos-laden materials were used on ships and submarines during that time, and crewmembers were at risk of inhaling dangerous, airborne asbestos fibers. Asbestos was commonly and mostly utilized within the ship's insulation, more accurately the insulation involved with piping. Any crewmember who is at all concerned that they may have been exposed to deadly asbestos while serving duty on the USS Alabama should monitor their respiratory health carefully, due to the fact that asbestos has been strongly linked with the development of mesothelioma cancer, and any veteran who is diagnosed with mesothelioma should speak with their doctor regarding mesothelioma treatment methods.
Last modified: December 28, 2010.
