Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — located on Oahu, Hawaii — is the United States Pacific Fleet’s primary ship maintenance and repair facility, with a history spanning more than a century of Navy operations in the Pacific. The shipyard built, maintained, and overhauled naval vessels throughout World War II and the Cold War era, including submarine overhaul, surface ship repair, and major refurbishment projects for Pacific Fleet combatants. All ship construction and overhaul work at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard involved the installation and removal of asbestos insulation throughout the steam, propulsion, and engineering systems of the vessels in overhaul. Pearl Harbor shipyard workers — including pipefitters, insulation workers, Machinist’s Mates, and boilermakers — worked in asbestos-insulated engineering spaces throughout the shipyard’s active history. Pearl Harbor’s formal shipyard documentation — including asbestos-related reports and memoranda — appears in the asbestos litigation corpus, establishing the facility’s documented role in the Navy-wide asbestos exposure and response framework.

Documented Asbestos — Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Litigation

Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — Formal Reports and Memoranda

Asbestos at Pearl Harbor — Cross-Shipyard Documentation

Asbestos Gasket Replacement at Pearl Harbor

Worker Safety — Pearl Harbor Asbestos Context

Asbestos at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

Pacific Fleet overhaul operations: Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard was the primary overhaul facility for Pacific Fleet combatants — the venue where carriers, destroyers, submarines, and auxiliary vessels received the major maintenance that required complete disassembly and replacement of asbestos insulation throughout their engineering spaces.

Submarine overhaul: Pearl Harbor was a major submarine overhaul facility, with submarine engineering spaces presenting the most confined and challenging asbestos work environments in the Navy. Submarine overhaul workers removed and replaced asbestos pipe covering in spaces too small to stand upright — generating high asbestos fiber concentrations in enclosed hulls.

World War II repair operations: Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard performed emergency battle damage repair operations following the December 7, 1941 attack — repair work performed under wartime conditions that prioritized operational readiness over worker safety, in vessels with asbestos insulation throughout their engineering spaces.

Post-war construction expansion: Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard expanded significantly after World War II to support Pacific Fleet operations during the Cold War era. This expansion construction used asbestos-containing building materials throughout the new facilities — creating asbestos exposure for the construction workforce as well as for the operational shipyard workers.

VA Claims and Legal Options — Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Workers

Navy veterans who served at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — both military personnel and civilian workers — and veterans whose ships were overhauled at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard during the asbestos era, who subsequently developed mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis, or pleural disease, may qualify for:

  • VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) for veterans with documented duty at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard or aboard vessels overhauled at the facility
  • Civil claims against asbestos product manufacturers whose materials were installed at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, based on documented asbestos product use and exposure at the facility

Key documents:

  • DD-214 or service records — documenting assignment to or duty at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, or service aboard vessels overhauled at Pearl Harbor
  • Employment records — civilian employment at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as a pipefitter, insulation worker, boilermaker, or in any maintenance trade
  • Diagnosis — mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis, or pleural disease

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Exposure documentation derived from publicly filed asbestos litigation records including Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard formal reports and 1978 memoranda addressing asbestos matters, documentation of asbestos used at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, testimony about asbestos gasket replacement on naval vessels at Pearl Harbor, worker asbestos safety documentation at the Pearl Harbor facility, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in the Navy-wide asbestos exposure documentation framework. This does not constitute legal or medical advice.