“Warning—warning: strange ships entering harbor” was the TBS (radio) message from USS Patterson, DD 392—“the only American ship that was properly awake” wrote historian Samuel Eliot Morison*—that opened the Battle of Savo Island, 9 August 1942.

Daniel Todd Patterson was born on Long Island, New York, 6 March 1786.    Joining the Navy in 1800, he was serving as midshipman in frigate Philadelphia when it was stranded and captured at Tripoli, October 1803, and as a member of the crew was held prisoner for three years until peace was declared.    In 1814–15 as commander of naval forces at New Orleans, he cooperated with General Andrew Jackson in the defense of that city, for which he received the thanks of congress.    Promoted captain, he commanded frigate Constitution 1825–28, served as Navy Commissioner 1828–32, commanded the Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron 1832–36, and then served as Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard until his death 25 August 1839 at Wilmington, New Jersey.

   Named for Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson, the second Patterson was built at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, christened there with Jarvis, and commissioned 22 September 1937.
   Operating in the Pacific with flagship Selfridge other ships of her class as Destroyer Squadron 4 before World War II, Patterson was moored at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, shooting down one attacking plane before standing out of the harbor in search of enemy submarines and then screening Saratoga in searching for the enemy.
   In the early months of the war, Patterson continued patrolling in the Pacific, escorting convoys and screening Lexington ‘s Task Force 11 (Rear Adm. Wilson Brown) in an aborted raid on Rabaul, 20 February, and a sortie into the Gulf of Papua for a successful air strike on Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea, 10 March.
   In May, after an overhaul, Patterson took part in the Operation Watchtower, the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, 7 August. Responding, a Japanese cruiser column approached undetected until her CO, Destroyer Division 8 Commander F.R. Walker, raised the alert shortly after 0130, 9 August 1942. Patterson promptly engaged Japanese warships during the Battle of Savo Island, receiving shell hits that killed ten of her crew and damaged her two after five-inch guns.
   Patterson remained on escort duty in the Solomon Islands for the duration of the Guadalcanal campaign and the following New Georgia campaign—bombarding Munda, New Georgia, on 25 July 1943, sinking submarine I-178 on 25 August, and covering landings to occupy Vella Lavella in September and attacking barges—until she and McCalla were badly damaged in a collision on 29–30 September when the latter lost steering control, killing three and wounding ten. Fitted with a false bow at Espiritu Santo, Patterson left 6 December for repairs at Mare Island.
   Patterson returned to the war zone in March 1944, in time to participate in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June and the Marianas campaign from then into August, followed by the Palaus campaign, raids on Japanese bases in the western Pacific, and the invations of Leyte and Mindoro. In 1945, she took part in the Lingayen operation, the Iwo Jima landings and the long campaign in the Ryukyus. She concluded the war with escort and patrol work in the central and western Pacific.
   In late September 1945, Patterson returned to New York and was decommissioned there in November. She was sold for scrapping in August 1947. She earned 13 battle stars in World War II.