The USS Josephus Daniels (DLG/CG-27) was a Belknap-class destroyer cruiser named after the Secretary of the Navy during World War I. The ship was launched as a frigate and reclassified as a cruiser in 1975. The vessel's construction contract was awarded in 1961, and the keel was laid down at Bath Iron Works in 1962. The destroyer cruiser was delivered to the Navy the following year and commissioned in 1965. The first deployment of the USS Josephus Daniels was in 1967 to the Mediterranean Sea, where she participated in various NATO exercises. The ship began a western Pacific deployment, arriving in Vietnam and relieving the USS BELNAP (DLG-26) in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1970. She assumed the duties of a search and rescue ship in Da Nang and completed a 251-day deployment. In the following years, the vessel was part of missions in the Mediterranean Sea as flagship for Destroyer Squadron 26 and participated in NATO operations. After over 28 years of service, the USS Josephus Daniels was decommissioned, struck from the register in 1994, and sold for scrap in 1999. Due to pipes insulated with asbestos running throughout naval ships, veterans were exposed to asbestos as the ship's vibration damaged the pipe insulation. Many Navy veterans developed incapacitating asbestos-related diseases decades after service.
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