Damage Controlmen (DCs) are the Navy's shipboard firefighters and emergency repair specialists. The rating plans, supervises, and performs the work needed for damage control, ship stability, firefighting, fire prevention, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) defense. DCs operate, maintain, and inspect installed fire suppression systems and damage control equipment, perform emergency repairs to decks, pipes, and hulls, and provide ongoing firefighting and damage control training to the entire crew. The Coast Guard uses the same DC rating aboard its cutters, with similar firefighting, plumbing, welding, and CBRN decontamination duties.
Those duties put DCs at the center of nearly every toxic hazard a ship can produce. When a fire breaks out at sea there is no municipal fire department: DCs lead hose teams into machinery spaces, berthing compartments, and hangar bays filled with smoke from burning fuel, wiring, paint, and plastics. Between casualties they run constant drills, inspect and maintain extinguishing systems, and handle aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), a firefighting agent that contained PFAS chemicals from the time the Department of Defense adopted it in the 1970s. On ships built before the mid 1970s, the pipes, bulkheads, and machinery that DCs patched, shored, and repaired were often insulated with asbestos, and emergency repair work disturbed those materials in confined, poorly ventilated spaces.
Exposures in This Job
AFFF firefighting foam (PFAS)
Aqueous film forming foam has been the military's standard agent for fuel fires since the Department of Defense adopted it in the 1970s, and legacy formulations contained PFAS chemicals such as PFOA and PFOS. DCs met AFFF at every turn: inspecting and maintaining installed foam systems, handling foam concentrate, flowing foam during shipboard drills and actual firefighting, and cleaning up afterward. VA notes that military firefighters who used AFFF to extinguish fuel fires may have been exposed to PFAS. The Department of Defense has since stopped using PFAS foams for training and is phasing them out, but veterans who served during the decades of routine use handled the agent directly.
Asbestos
Ships built before the mid 1970s used asbestos heavily in pipe lagging, machinery insulation, gaskets, deck materials, and bulkhead panels. Damage control work disturbed those materials constantly. DCs performed emergency repairs to damaged pipes, decks, and structures, patched and shored casualties, and maintained watertight fittings throughout the ship. Cutting, drilling, or tearing out damaged lagging releases asbestos fibers into closed compartments. VA lists shipyard work, insulation work, and pipe products among the recognized military sources of asbestos exposure, and notes that asbestos related diseases often do not appear until 20 to 50 years after exposure.
Fire smoke and combustion byproducts
Shipboard fires burn fuel oil, lubricants, paint, wiring, and plastics inside sealed steel compartments, concentrating the gases, vapors, and particulates that NIOSH identifies as known or suspected causes of cancer. DCs led hose and rescue teams into those spaces during real casualties and repeated the exposure in live fire training. A NIOSH study of roughly 30,000 career firefighters found higher rates of cancer than the general population, mostly digestive, oral, respiratory, and urinary cancers, plus about twice the expected rate of malignant mesothelioma, which researchers linked to asbestos in burning structures. Shipboard firefighting adds confined spaces and asbestos insulation to that same hazard profile.
PFAS in drinking water at training installations
PFAS exposure was not limited to handling foam. VA notes that service members could also be exposed through drinking water at military bases where AFFF was used or released, and the Department of Defense has investigated PFAS contamination across its installations, with releases during firefighting training a major source of groundwater contamination. DCs attended firefighting schools and periodic refresher training ashore, where foam was discharged repeatedly over decades. VA cautions that the duration and intensity of water exposure at any given base is unknown, which is one reason documenting duty stations and training assignments matters for veterans pursuing PFAS related claims.
Linked Health Conditions
The cancers most closely tied to a DC's exposure profile follow the toxins. Asbestos is a recognized cause of mesothelioma and lung cancer, both listed by VA as asbestos related diseases, with symptoms that commonly surface 20 to 50 years after service. ATSDR reports epidemiological evidence associating PFOA, a PFAS chemical in legacy AFFF, with kidney cancer and testicular cancer, and VA is reviewing the relationship between kidney cancer and PFAS. NIOSH's large firefighter cohort study found elevated rates of urinary system cancers, a category that includes bladder cancer and kidney cancer, along with digestive, oral, and respiratory cancers. A veteran who served as a DC and later received one of these diagnoses should document the exposure history in detail. The full list of conditions is at cancers linked to military service.
Supporting a VA Claim
Serving as a Damage Controlman does not, by itself, create a VA presumption. Presumptive service connection depends on where and when a veteran served, such as PACT Act burn pit locations, Vietnam era herbicide exposure, radiation risk activities, or Camp Lejeune dates, not on the job held. AFFF and PFAS exposure is not currently presumptive for any condition; VA's scientific review remains open. Job based exposure instead supports a direct service connection claim, which requires a current diagnosis, evidence of in-service exposure, and a medical nexus opinion connecting the two.
The DC rating is strong exposure evidence. Personnel records showing the rating and ship assignments, deployment dates aboard older vessels, deck logs documenting fires and drills, buddy statements from shipmates, and the rating's official occupational standards describing firefighting and emergency repair duties can all help establish in-service exposure. Start with the exposure check tool to map a rating to its likely toxins, then review presumptive conditions to see whether service locations or dates open a separate presumptive path.
Sources
- https://www.navy.com/careers-benefits/careers/first-responder/damage-controlman
- https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/pfas.asp
- https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/hazardous-materials-exposure/asbestos/
- https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/asbestos/index.asp
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firefighters/health.html
- https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/niosh/updates/upd-10-17-13.html
- https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/health-effects/index.html
- https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/
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This page is for informational purposes only and is not medical or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional about your health or benefits.