USS Colhoun, DD 85, a 1060-ton Wickes-class destroyer, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned in June 1918, she escorted Atlantic convoys during most of the remainder of World War I. In November 1918, she was assigned duties in connection with underwater sound experiments and in 1919 operated with the Atlantic Fleet in the Caribbean and off the U.S. east coast. In reduced commission from December 1919, Colhoun was decommissioned in June 1922 and spent the next eighteen years laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Colhoun’s casualties off Guadalcanal, 30 August 1942. Source: Bureau of Personnel casualty report, NARA.

   When the expansion of World War II in Europe and growing tension with Japan required enlarging the active fleet, Colhoun was taken to the Norfolk Navy Yard in June 1940 and converted to a high-speed transport. With the new hull number APD-2, she recommissioned in December 1940 for operations and training in the Atlantic and Caribbean in connection with the development of an enhanced amphibious warfare capability.
   Colhoun arrived in the south Pacific in July 1942 and helped land US Marines on Tulagi on 7–8 August, at the opening of the long and bloody Guadalcanal Campaign. She continued on transport and patrol service during the first weeks of that operation. On 30 August 1942, while off Guadalcanal, she was targeted by Japanese bombers. Hit several times, USS Colhoun soon sank off Lunga Point with the loss of 51 crewmembers.
   Colhoun earned two battle stars on her Asiatic-Pacific campaign ribbon as follows:

1 Star GUADALCANAL–TULAGI LANDINGS 1 Star CAPTURE AND DEFENSE OF GUADALCANAL