The USS BENNER was a destroyer of the 2250-ton Gearing class named in honor of Second Lieutenant Stanley Graves BENNER, USMCR, who won the Silver Star Medal posthumously in 1942. Second Lieutenant BENNER was killed in action on 27 October 1942, while displaying courageous determination in leading his platoon against repeated assaults of enemy forces greatly superior in number at Pt. Lunga, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.

Built by the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, USS BENNER was launched on 30 November 1944, and was christened by Mrs. Herman C. BENNER, mother of the ship's namesake.

On 13 February 1945, the USS BENNER was delivered at the Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts, and placed in commission there on the same day. CDR JOHN MUNHOLLAND, USN, was the ship's first Commanding Officer.

The next few months were spent in fitting out the ship and training the officers and crew. Shakedown training was accomplished at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and was completed on 8 June 1945. Flying the pennant of commander, Destroyer Division Twenty, BENNER sailed through the Panama Canal for duty with the U. S. Pacific Fleet.

Upon her arrival in Pearl Harbor, another period of training commenced. On 11 July, five months after commissioning, BENNER steamed westward from Pearl Harbor escorting a carrier. Enroute, the carrier conducted air strikes against Wake Island on 20 July. On 26 July 1945, BENNER joined Task Group 38.3, operating in the home waters of the Japanese Empire.

For most of the remainder of the war, BENNER performed duties of screening fast carriers and delivering mail and freight, along with the scores of other destroyers supporting the carrier task force. On strike days, however, BENNER usually took station with several other destroyers as special radar pickets for the purpose of controlling friendly aircraft and preventing successful enemy air attacks on U. S. surface forces.

It was on one of these strike days, 9 August 1945, that BENNER, in the waters east of Honshu, Japan, received her "BAPTISM BY KAMIKAZE." The day began early as hundreds of friendly aircraft took to the air to attack enemy communications, transports and installations. Enemy aircraft were observed shadowing the fleet. No attacks were made by the enemy during the morning, but by 1400 they were out in force.

During the rest of the afternoon, the Task Force fought off numerous savage suicide attacks. Nearby ships were hit, but BENNER, putting up an effective screen of antiaircraft fire, escaped damage.

With the war near its end, all that remained to be done to finish the job was air sea rescue operations, screening missions and the destruction of drifting mines. This occupied BENNER until she anchored in Tokyo Bay in September 1945.