The USS Buchanan (DDG-14) was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer laid down on April 23, 1959, and launched on May 11, the following year. It was commissioned on February 7, 1962, under Comdr. George C. Towner’s command who served in the U.S. Navy for 29 years until it was decommissioned on October 1, 1991. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 354 people on board and had its main missions in Pearl Harbor and Australia. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on November 20, 1992, and sunk as a target in 2000.
The veterans who served the country during the 20th century faced a major problem regarding the use of asbestos in the shipbuilding process which led to thousands of naval workers getting sick. When considering the levels of asbestos exposure on a ship, the most damaging places were the boiler rooms, engineering rooms, navigation rooms, however, asbestos mixtures were also used to build items such as condensers, turbines, valves, pumps that required constant supervision which meant that sailors were in the presence of the toxic substance at all times.
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