S1E32 — The Invisible Enemy Within
The Asbestos Podcast · Season 1 · Arc 7: The Truth Emerges (Episode 3)
Episode 32 — The Invisible Enemy Within
1939. A Navy Medical Officer recommends respirators for pipe covering workers. The recommendation goes nowhere. 1941. Commander Charles S. Stephenson writes to the Surgeon General: "I am certain that we are not protecting the men as we should." No documented response. No policy change. 1943. The Navy publishes comprehensive safety requirements for asbestos work — Section 11.1, requiring respiratory protection, segregated work, periodic medical exams. Requirements that are never enforced. Fifty years later, a federal judge would call what followed "official connivance at coverup of the hazards of asbestos in the shipyards."
3.4 million Americans served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Every Navy vessel in the fleet contained asbestos. The men below decks — working in engine rooms above 130 degrees Fahrenheit, in spaces so thick with asbestos fibers a gunner's mate once described it as watching snow fall inside the ship — were never told. Not once. Not by the Navy. Not by the manufacturers. Not by anyone.
Episode 32 documents what the Navy knew, when they knew it, and what they chose not to do with that knowledge.
Key Takeaways
- The Navy's knowledge timeline (1939-1973) — 1939: Navy Medical Officer H.E. Jenkins recommends respirators. 1941: Commander Stephenson writes directly to the Surgeon General warning of inadequate protection. 1943: The Navy publishes Section 11.1 — comprehensive asbestos safety requirements for contract shipyards. A federal judge later found those requirements "were not enforced in naval shipyards" and that there was "official connivance at coverup." Sailors below decks received none of this. No respirators. No warnings. No monitoring. For thirty years.
- Walter Twidwell — Navy boiler tender, 1954-1973. Seven ships. Korea through Vietnam. The insulation on every pipe, every valve, every surface: white, fibrous, dusty. No respirator. No warning. When he retired, he built a log cabin in Washington State. Took daily walks with a miniature dachshund named Hiram. Hosted reading contests for schoolchildren. March 2017, at age 81: a persistent cough, shortness of breath, an X-ray showing a mass. "There is no cure for it. Do you have all your paperwork in order?" When Walter learned the Navy had required respirators since 1943 — and never told him — he said: "I didn't want to sue my government, and I damn sure didn't want to sue the Navy, 'cause they're still feeding me." A friend called the lawyers on his behalf. August 2018: a New York jury awarded Walter Twidwell $40.1 million against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Deliberation time: less than two hours. Walter died approximately a year later.
- What it was actually like below decks — 130-170 degrees Fahrenheit. 112 decibels — above the Navy's own threshold for double hearing protection, making verbal communication physically impossible. 3-4 hour watches in confined spaces. Boiler room insulation ranging from 5 to 99 percent amosite asbestos. And when the ship's guns fired: vibration shaking the insulation loose. A gunner's mate on USS Chevalier testified: "There was so much airborne asbestos that it looked like it was snowing inside the vessel."
- Bob Niemiec — USS Hermitage, entered service 1965. First assignment out of boot camp: scraping paint that contained asbestos. Nobody told him. Thirty years later, while umpiring baseball games, breathing problems. September 2019: two masses on his lungs, three collapsed lungs in succession, eight hours of surgery. Pleural mesothelioma. Prognosis: ten months to live. Bob decided: "I'm not going to take radiation and chemo and be sick with whatever time I have left." He takes over-the-counter pain medication. Nothing else. As of late 2024, Bob Niemiec was still alive — more than five years past his ten-month prognosis. His wife Jeannie: "They all said it's impossible medically for this man to still be alive. So it's just not his time to go."
- The VA policy most veterans don't know — Mesothelioma is NOT on the VA's presumptive list for asbestos exposure. Unlike Agent Orange or burn pit exposure, a veteran with mesothelioma must prove three things individually: a current diagnosis, service records demonstrating asbestos exposure likely occurred, and a medical nexus opinion connecting the diagnosis to service. Even with every Navy ship documented as containing asbestos. Even with 30 percent of mesothelioma patients being veterans. The burden remains on the veteran to prove what the Navy already knew for decades.
Key Statistics
- 1939, 1941, 1943 — the Navy's documented knowledge of asbestos hazards, predating widespread veteran exposure
- 30 years — the period during which known safety requirements went unenforced for sailors
- 3.4 million — Americans who served in the Vietnam theater, all aboard ships the Navy knew contained asbestos
- 130-170°F, 112 dB — documented conditions in Navy boiler rooms during service
- $40.1 million — Walter Twidwell's verdict, less than 2 hours of jury deliberation
- 5+ years — Bob Niemiec's survival past a ten-month prognosis, "impossible medically"
- 30% of mesothelioma patients are veterans (versus 7% of the U.S. population)
- 6.47x — elevated mesothelioma mortality for Navy veterans compared to civilians
- 20-50 years — latency period between first asbestos exposure and mesothelioma diagnosis
Who This Episode Is For
If you or someone you love served aboard U.S. Navy vessels during the Korean War, Vietnam War, or Cold War era — particularly in engineering, boiler, or machinery ratings — the evidence documented in this episode is directly relevant to your family's health history. The veterans being diagnosed today with mesothelioma typically breathed asbestos fibers 40 to 60 years ago. The latency period means the crisis is not behind us. It is now.
Featured: Larry Gates
Larry Gates is a Senior Client Advocate at Danziger and De Llano. His father was a Navy veteran who came home and worked the Shell refinery in Pasadena, Texas — and died of mesothelioma in 1999. Larry is now 72, fighting his own battle with cancer, and still helping other families through the same fight his family faced. When you call Danziger and De Llano, you may be talking to someone who has already lived this story.
Paul Danziger and Rod De Llano founded the firm in 1995. Nearly two billion dollars recovered for over a thousand families. Free 24/7 consultation: dandell.com/contact-us/
Beating the Odds: Stories of Unexpected Mesothelioma Survival — compiled by Dave Foster, available on Amazon or free for families facing a new diagnosis. Call the firm to request a copy.
Resources
Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making — 51 episodes tracing asbestos from ancient pottery to the 2024 EPA ban. Produced by Danziger & De Llano.
Next: Episode 33 — Project 100,000. What happened when the veterans came home. The homecoming betrayal, the Agent Orange parallel, and a government that spent years ignoring what it had already documented.
Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano Mesothelioma Law Firm, a nationwide practice with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the exposure happened somewhere—and Paul Danziger and Rod De Llano know how to trace it back. For a free consultation, visit https://dandell.com.
Resources:
→ Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/
→ Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/
→ Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/
→ Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/
Sister Podcast - MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast:
http://mesotheliomapodcast.com/
