Fletcher-Class Destroyer

The Fletcher class is a class of American destroyers built during the Second World War, designed in 1939 in response to dissatisfaction with the earlier Porter and Somers class destroyer leaders and named for Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, a Medal of Honor recipient, in keeping with the American practice of naming destroyers after naval officers. The lead ship entered service on 4 June 1942, and with 175 vessels eventually commissioned it became the most numerous class of destroyer the United States Navy ever built, each armed with five 5-inch guns and ten 21-inch torpedo tubes and capable of roughly 36.5 knots. Deployed almost entirely in the Pacific theater, Fletcher-class destroyers performed the full range of destroyer duties, from antisubmarine and antiaircraft escort work to direct surface combat against Japanese warships, and the class is credited with sinking 29 Japanese submarines over the course of the war.