USS Fletcher (DD-445) was the lead ship of the Fletcher class of destroyers. Named for Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, she served in the Pacific during World War II. She was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey on October 2, 1941; launched on May 3, 1942; sponsored by Mrs. F. F. Fletcher, widow of Admiral Fletcher; and commissioned on June 30, 1942.

In October 1942, the destroyer was sent to the south Pacific war zone to assist with the Guadalcanal campaign. The following month, she took part in two major night gunfire and torpedo actions, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on the 13th and the Battle of Tassafaronga on the 30th. She remained in the south Pacific for the next six months, during the final part of the Guadalcanal struggle and the early stages of the Central Solomons campaign.

After overhaul in the US, Fletcher returned to the Pacific war zone in time to serve with the aircraft carrier task forces in the Gilbert Islands invasion in November 1943 and raids into the Marshall Islands in December. During January and February 1944, she took part in bombardments and amphibious landings in the Marshalls. A few months later, she supported the campaign across northern New Guinea and into Morotai from April through September. From late 1944 to the first five months of 1945, she participated in landings on Leyte, Morotai, Lingayen Gulf and several other places in the Philippines and Borneo.

Fletcher was inactive during most of 1946 and was formally decommissioned in mid-January 1947. She remained in mothballs until 1949 when she was converted to an anti-submarine destroyer and redesignated DDE-445. Recommissioned in October 1949, she began a tour of duty in the Far East in May 1950. She participated in the first part of the Korean War and made two more combat tours in that area in the early 1950s. In mid-1962 her designation changed back to DD-445, but she continued to serve in an anti-submarine capacity. In addition to countering the large undersea fleets maintained by the Soviet Union and China, she was an active participant in Vietnam War patrol and gunfire support operations from 1965 to 1969.

Fletcher was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register at the beginning of August 1969, and was sold for scrapping in February 1972. She received fifteen battle stars for World War II service, and five for Korean War service.

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