The USS La Grange, which was named after the LaGrange County of Indiana, was a Victory ship built in 1944 by the California Shipbuilding Corporation. It was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract and sponsored by Mrs. Albert Krutcher. The ship served during World War II as a Haskell-class attack transport of the U.S. Navy. It earned one battle star for the extraordinary operations it conducted during the war. Since it was built in the middle of the last century, when asbestos was heavily employed by the military, numerous hazardous products were present aboard the USS La Grange, mostly in the engine room, the damage control room, the pump room and the propulsion room. Thereby, people who were on the ship were greatly exposed to the toxic mineral, which places them today at high risk of developing serious diseases such as lung cancer. The USS La Grange was sold to the Nicolai Joffe Corporation to be scrapped in 1975.
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