Commissioned in 1938, USS Skipjack (SS-184) received 7 battle stars for World War II service. It was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the fish. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 22 July 1936. She was launched on 23 October 1937 sponsored by Miss Frances Cuthbert Van Keuren, daughter of Captain Alexander H. Van Keuren, Superintending Constructor, New York Navy Yard. The boat was commissioned on 30 June 1938 with Lieutenant Herman Sall in command. She earned multiple battle stars during World War II and then was sunk, remarkably, by an atomic bomb during post-war testing. In 1946, the submarine was sunk in Operation Crossroads atomic bomb test, subsequently raised, and eventually sunk as a target off southern California. The USS Skipjack (SS-184) was built in 1939, which means asbestos was lurking on the vessel in the form of wall insulation. For this reason, we highly encourage Navy veterans who served on the USS Skipjack (SS-184) to keep a close eye on their health and make sure the asbestos fibers they breathed in or swallowed have not affected their organs.
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