The USS Cascade (AD-16) was the only ship of its class, a destroyer tender, launched on 6 June 1942 by Western Pipe and Steel Company in San Francisco, California. Later that year, the ship was given for outfitting to the Matson Navigation Company of San Francisco, California. On 12 March 1943, the USS Cascade was commissioned and departed for Pearl Harbor, beginning her wartime duty of tending destroyers. USS Cascade was the flagship of Service Squadron 4 in 1943; she sailed to Okinawa in 1945 to support the occupation until 1946. The destroyer tender was decommissioned in 1947 and placed in reserve at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Recommissioned in 1951, she was a tender for the many destroyers home-ported in Newport, Rhode Island. The vessel also served through 1963 as flagship for commander, Destroyer Force, Atlantic. The USS Cascade was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register in 1974. Asbestos was heavily used throughout the construction of Navy ships for insulating boilers, pipes, and heat-resistant gaskets. Veterans who served on ships built before the 80s were exposed to a considerable amount of toxic dust, as ship maintenance regularly disturbed asbestos.
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