The USS Epperson (DD/DDE-719), a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, was launched on 22 December 1945 at the Port Newark yard by Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. of Kearny, New Jersey. The ship was placed in mothballs and towed to Bath Iron Works in December 1946. It was redesignated DDE-719 on 28 January 1948; completed by Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine; and commissioned on 19 March 1949, with Commander T. H. W. Connor in command. The destroyer served in Vietnam making a "West Pac Cruise" every year from 1962 until 1973. It was transferred to Pakistan on 29 April 1977 and served in the Pakistani Navy as PNS Taimur. Once exposed to asbestos, symptoms can take anywhere between 10 and 50 years to arise at which point it can give rise to a multitude of conditions from lung cancer and asbestosis to fatal mesothelioma. Symptoms generally include breathlessness, fatigue, and pain in the chest, and once they start it is essential that advice from a specialist is sought.
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