USS Mahan (DD-364)

USS Mahan (DD-364)

The second USS Mahan (DD-364) was the lead ship of the Mahan-class destroyers of the United States Navy. She was commissioned on 18 September 1936, and named for Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, a leading 19th century naval historian and strategic theorist.

Mahan served the Navy in both peacetime and wartime. She was first attached to the Atlantic Fleet, but was transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1937. She operated mainly in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. Her wartime assignments ranged from escort and patrol duties to landing craft support and anti-aircraft warfare. In the latter stages of the war in the Pacific, the Japanese kamikaze was relentless in plaguing the operations of the US Navy. On 7 December 1944, a Kamikaze squadron overwhelmed Mahan at Ormoc Bay, Leyte, in the Philippine Islands. Following the attack, Mahan was disabled, abandoned, and sunk by friendly fire.