The USS Picket (YAGR-7) was a designated radar station ship in the service of the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was laid down in March 1945 as the Liberty Ship SS James. F. Harrell at the J.A. James Construction Company’s shipyards in Panama City, Florida. The ship served as a marine merchant ship under the control of Alcoa Steamship Lines until the end of the war. It was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet where it remained until July 1955. The vessel was towed to Portsmouth, Virginia to be converted to a radar station ship. It was commissioned in February 1956 and for the next 10 years, the USS Picket served the North American Air Defense Command, using its long-range radar and communication equipment and providing radar information on the Pacific coast. Due to its natural resistance to heat, fire, and electrical damage, asbestos refers to a fibrous material that was used to insulate boilers, hot steam pipes, fuel lines to pumps, and turbines, compressors from onboard Navy ships in the decades after the outbreak of the Second World War. Asbestos is easily inhaled when tiny fibers are released into the surrounding air. These particles are invisible but highly dangerous because they can lodge into the lungs and cause a variety of pulmonary-related diseases.
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