The USS Elliot (DD-967) was a Spruance-class destroyer built by the Litton Industries, Ingalls Shipbuilding Division. She was assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet and conducted five weeks of shakedown training, participating in combat exercises. In 1978, the ship was transferred from the operational command of Destroyer Squadron Nine to Destroyer Squadron 31. The vessel departed for her first deployment a year later, a seven-month Western Pacific tour as flagship of the destroyer squadron alongside the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4). In 1981, the USS Elliot was transferred to Destroyer Squadron 21. The ship entered Todd Pacific Shipyard in the same year for the first private-sector overhaul for a Spruance-class destroyer. She received a modern electronic warfare system, which she used in several worldwide missions until her decommissioning in 2003. The USS Elliot was sunk off the eastern coast of Australia in 2005 as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre. All military branches commonly used asbestos to insulate and fireproof military vehicles, buildings, and equipment. Products containing asbestos were everywhere onboard Navy ships, exposing veterans daily to airborne toxic fibers and putting them in danger of developing asbestos-related diseases decades later.
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