 They have called her Little Boy, Four Piper, Gut Bucket, and Tin Can. Ingenuity, time, and circumstance have made her not merely the most versatile, but pound for fighting pound, the most efficient naval craft ever devised. She's the American destroyer, Greyhound of the sea. No doubt the true origin of the modern destroyer lies somewhere in obscurity. But many believe that her genesis originated with the commissioning of torpedo boat destroyer number one, the USS Bainbridge on November 24th, 1902. She could travel at the relatively swift speed of 29 knots, carried two three-inch guns, five six-pounders, and sported two torpedo tubes. And her first mission in life was to combat the torpedo boat, a deadly weapon that had grown to prominence following the Civil War and the invention of the Whitehead self-propelled torpedo in 1866. Since the torpedo boat was a cheaply constructed, yet highly responsive vessel, many Navy men believe that squadrons of her kind might one day be able to neutralize a Navy with much heavier ships. Any counterweapon against her needed to possess speed, maneuverability, and gutty staying power. These attributes have become the trademark of all of the lean gray ships that followed the Bainbridge down the way. A trademark that would earn them the title destroyer. During the years prior to 1917, various improvements including increased stability and the change from reciprocating engines to steam turbines made little difference in the destroyer's essential mission. But as the guns of the Great War echoed across the Atlantic, the little boys suddenly found themselves important adjuncts to the scouting and screening line of the fleet. World War I became the destroyer's first real baptism under fire. It was in this sphere of combat that America's newly designed flush deck for pipers proved their versatility. Against a different breed of torpedo boat, the German submarine. By April of 1917, the German U-boats had established a strangling circle around the British Isles. The Allies' only hope of victory lay in breaking this cordon through use of the convoy system. It was here that the insolent young American destroyers proved their mettle as savage invaders and defenders of the food, munitions and troops bound for England and the continent. This was the first test. It was a severe one. But the tin cans came through. They proved themselves not only adept at convoy escort and defense, but as fledgling hunter-killers during the early trial and error years of anti-submarine warfare. By war's end, the compact bridge of the Gallant Forepiper had become a sought after and cherished command by rising young officers of the fleet. But the illusion of peace and freedom, assured by victory, brought tragedy to the destroyer force. With the Great Naval Disarmament Treaty of 1922, over 200 of the little boys were stricken from the active list. And the construction of new destroyers came to a standstill for nearly 12 years. Even the eventual addition of the newer Farragut and Porter-class destroyers after 1934 did little to alleviate a problem of growing obsolescence. However, if there was one thing that destroyer men had learned during World War I, it was how to survive. And so, during the 30s, they made do with what they had. They kept their tools sharp with constant training and discipline and welded their small force into a formidable fighting unit. While at the same time, they must have looked over their shoulders with envy at the big boys. In the eyes of the public at large, the Navy was symbolized by the powerful-looking battleship with its 16-inch guns and constant and comfortable aura of tradition and showmanship. And it was time for many Americans to visit the New York World's fair. For them, it was an opportunity to witness a world of the future in the making. Beneath the panoramic shadows of the trial on in Paris fear at Flushing Meadows, few thought or worried about a different drama that was beginning to unfold out in the Atlantic. It was the beginning of Rudel Taktik, the Wolfpack, an inspired and creative creation of Germany's master naval strategist, Admiral Karl Danis. Its assigned mission was quite simple. For the second time in less than 30 years, the German submarine would attempt to sever Britain's lifeline to the rest of the world. By late 1941, Admiral Danis found himself in the enviable position of being able to radio deploy from 30 to 50 submarines to selected areas where they could systematically pick off stragglers. Or strike full force as a unit at large groups of merchant ships inbound for the British Isles. And so the traditional enemy of the destroyer made its second meaningful appearance on the world stage. But the American destroyer men and the entire United States Navy soon had another problem. It commenced on the morning of December 7th, 1941. The big boys were gone. It would take months, even years, before the full effect of their 16-inch guns would be felt again. A handful of cruisers, four aircraft carriers and the destroyer fleet would be called upon to hold the Pacific battle line throughout 1942. In a sense, when the American battleships were bombed at Pearl Harbor, they and all of their counterparts throughout the navies of the world had become the permanent victims of air power. And so, in the years that followed, the men of the destroyer force took on new obligations and became more indispensable to another breed of men. It was the aircraft carrier, with all of its mobility, range and striking power, implicit in its air arm, which became the queen of battle at sea during World War II. And she drew the destroyers to her out of experience and necessity. Many a pilot lived to thumb his nose at the laws of probability because the destroyer was there. They came home the long way around, but they came home. From Guadalcanal to Bougainville to New Guinea, Paylaloo, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The destroyer became a familiar sight, moving in with each invasion force. This was the kind of alley fighting they'd come to expect. Nobody had a rulebook because unlike Europe, there was no single defensive crust that could be penetrated to the enemy's heart. Instead, the Pacific offered only another island or another perimeter to be taken. And so, to aid invasion troops, the destroyer became a mobile gun platform, moving from beach to beach to take on assigned targets at point blank range. Everywhere the destroyer went, she emerged as a jack-of-all-trades, as a minesweeper, troop carrier, shore bombardment platform, or anti-aircraft picket, and as expected, the arch enemy of the U-boat. There are fewer more stirring accounts of naval service action than that of the Battle of Lati Gulf off Samar Island in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. Here, three American destroyers and four destroyer escorts interposed themselves between a group of vulnerable jeep carriers and the Japanese force composed of four battleships, seven cruisers, and eleven destroyers. The American destroyers closed the range to within 7,000 yards, and during two hours of fire, fury and pounding torturous action, they threw everything they had into the battle. There could be only one outbound to such action. Five American destroyers were mortally wounded. The Japanese, with only one cruiser badly damaged, mysteriously turned and ran. They thought they had encountered a much larger force composed of cruisers and their escorts. From that moment on, the once magnificent Japanese Imperial fleet began to slip out of focus into history. Destroyer men saw them burst at Lati Gulf, and then at Lingai. But at Okinawa, they descended like locusts. The Japanese called them kamikaze, the divine wind. The tin cans went out among the wounded to do what they could. With this final purge of fire and violence, the Japanese mirage of conquest died. And the American fleet survived its greatest crises in the Pacific. The very weapon that would speed World War II to its close would also provide the seed for a military controversy in the years to follow. Why keep a large standing fleet capable of fighting only a confessional war? And so history repeated itself as hundreds of destroyers joined the mothball fleet and seemingly lay forgotten in the Navy's storehouse. Then, on the morning of June 25th, 1950, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the Republic of South Korea. The destroyer USS Dehaven and her sister ship Mansfield were dispatched immediately from the 7th fleet and took up station during the mass evacuation of refugees from Incheon and Wonsan. This was the nuclear age, yet among the first tools of warfare summoned during the marine landings at Incheon was the versatile but conventional destroyer. For some, it must have been an old, familiar sight. Since the Korean War, the United States Navy has been present wherever the consistent pattern of Cold War nibbling tactics have emerged. Destroyer men have stood guard for the free world at Lebanon, Formosa, Cuba, and in South Vietnam. They've represented their country as ambassadors of freedom in every corner of the world. They've brought aid and comfort to those whose world has been shattered and they've lifted men out of the sea who have seen the world from a different perspective. Wherever they've gone and whatever task they've been asked to accomplish, destroyer men have remained a special breed of accomplished seamen. For no ship on the oceans of the world demands as much of her crew as the destroyer. Yet the destroyer is changing. Time and world circumstance haven't allowed her evolution to come to a standstill. And with this metamorphosis, more than a gradual change has taken place in her men. Working deep within their ships, they've become the modern hunter killers of submarines. Their conversation has sprinkled with words alien to the layman's ears. ASW, ASRA, HUT, MAD, DASH. All of it part of a strange war where patience is a precious weapon and teamwork is a necessity. This is a HUT group, the Hunter Killer Force, born of trial and experience in World War II's Battle of the Atlantic. Normally it's composed of an aircraft carrier with helicopters, tracker and search planes, and a squadron of 8-10 destroyers supported by land-based aircraft. Working as a team, the objective of the force is to locate, classify, and if need be, kill the enemy submarine. At best their cooperation is mated to a set of technological and tactical problems that are almost overwhelming in scope. Once detected and classified, the Hunter Killer team will come in to lean on the contact. Destroyers will surround him and, if need be, sit on him for days until he surfaces. If the submarine is American, the issue is over. If it's not, there are problems. But the destroyer dare not charge into an area where a patrol plane has made contact. At that moment, the sub may escape. It must stay out until conditions warrant its entry. This means delay, and delay could mean failure. So, speed, quiet operations, and a long destructive arm are necessary. This is ASROC, the Anti-Submarine Rocket, the new long-range destructive arm which has become a mainstay in most destroyers of the fleet. Computer control. It can be armed with a conventional or nuclear depth jar, depending on the need of the moment. Another addition is DASH, the unmanned helicopter that can deliver a similar punch and then return home. Adhering to the concept of defense in depth, destroyers have also been instrumental in the breeding and evolution of still another generation of weapons. The surface-to-air guided missile. Yet, with all of these advanced capabilities, the destroyer over the years has retained one inherent weakness, a constant need for refueling, pulling her away from selective launching points or critical areas of open sea where she might be needed at any moment. This is why the nuclear-powered frigate Bainbridge has become such an important addition to today's destroyer Navy. Ships like her, with vast cruising ranges, are free to exploit the full gamut of naval capabilities with every patrol at sea. They represent a great investment of men and material, an investment that could only be made by a strong and dedicated power for peace, the United States Navy. This, then, has been the destroyer's story, an epic of conflict and change of men and steel against the timeless challenge of the sea. Thank you for watching.