The USS Orion (AS–18) was a Fulton-class submarine tender laid down in 1941, launched in 1942, and commissioned in 1943. After shakedown, the ship sailed for Pearl Harbor and tended to her first submarine, practicing for the 1944 mission of maintaining material readiness and an adequate stock of supplies for the submarines operating in the southwest Pacific. Between 1945 and 1993, she took up duties with SubRon6, participated in fleet exercises in the Caribbean Sea, and underwent a FRAM II overhaul and conversion to nuclear support. The vessel continued servicing SubRon6 and tended to the squadron's conventional and nuclear-powered ships through the 1970s. In 1980, the submarine tender had an overhaul in preparation to enter the command of Submarine Squadron Four and change of homeport to La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy. She tended to ships of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea until her decommissioning in 1993, being the oldest active ship in the US Navy's fleet. The USS Orion (AS–18) was transferred to the Maritime Administration for storage in 1999 and sold to be dismantled in 2006. Hundreds of ships were built with asbestos materials before the 1980s, leaving thousands of veterans and shipyard workers at risk of exposure and developing asbestos-related illnesses decades later.
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