USS Aaron Ward (DD-483)

History
USS Aaron Ward approaching USS Wasp on 17 August 1942, during operations in the Solomon Islands area.
United States
Name:	USS Aaron Ward
Namesake:	Aaron Ward
Builder:	Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Laid down:	11 February 1941
Launched:	22 November 1941
Commissioned:	4 March 1942
Fate:	Sunk by Japanese aircraft off Guadalcanal 7 April 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement:	2,060 tons (2,090 t)
Length:	348 ft 4 in (106.17 m)
Beam:	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft:	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:	50,000 shp (37,000 kW); 4 boilers; 2 propellers
Speed:	35 knots (65 km/h)
Range:	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	208
Armament:	4 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns, 6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns, 4 × 40 mm AA guns 5 × 20 mm AA guns 5 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 × depth charge projectors, 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Aaron Ward (DD-483) was a Gleaves-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named in honor of Rear Admiral Aaron Ward. She sank on 7 April 1943 in a shoal near Tinete Point of Nggela Sule, Solomon Islands during Operation I-Go. Her wreck was discovered on 4 September 1994.

Aaron Ward was laid down on 11 February 1941 at Kearny, New Jersey by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and launched on 22 November 1941, sponsored by Miss Hilda Ward, the daughter of the late Admiral Ward. The ship was commissioned on 4 March 1942 with Commander Orville F. Gregor in command.

Following her shakedown out of Casco Bay, Maine and post-shakedown availability at the New York Navy Yard, Aaron Ward sailed for the Pacific on 20 May 1942 and proceeded via the Panama Canal to San Diego. A short time later, as the Battle of Midway was developing off to the westward, the destroyer operated in the screen of Vice Admiral William S. Pye's Task Force 1 (TF 1), built around four battleships and an escort carrier, Long Island, as it steamed out into the Pacific Ocean – eventually reaching a point some 1,200 miles (2,200 km) west of San Francisco, California and equally northeast of Hawaii – to "support the current operations against the enemy." With the detachment of Long Island from the task force on 17 June, Aaron Ward screened her on her voyage back to San Diego.

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