USS Robert K . Huntington ( DD - 781 ) USS " Robert K . Huntington " ( DD - 781 ) , an , is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Robert Kingsbury Huntington , a naval aviator and member of Torpedo Squadron 8 . The entire squadron was lost during the Battle of Midway . " Robert K . Huntington " ( DD - 781 ) was laid down 29 February 1944 by Todd Pacific Shipyards , Seattle , Washington ; launched 5 December 1944 ; sponsored by Mrs . Ruth Arnold Welsh ; and commissioned 3 March 1945 , Commander J . W . Ramey in command . History . " Robert K . Huntington " joined the Pacific Fleet 31 May 1945 and from 27 June to 16 August escorted ships between Eniwetok and Ulithi . On 28 August , she joined the Fast Carrier Task Force off the Japanese coast and was one of the ships which escorted battleship into Tokyo Bay to receive the official Japanese surrender . She then returned to San Diego , carrying 100 marines home . In the spring of 1946 , she returned to the Marshalls as a unit of TF 1 during Operation Crossroads , the first atomic bomb test at Bikini . In July , she witnessed the air burst from a considerable distance , and the more spectacular underwater blast from the comparatively close range of 10 miles . Until early in 1949 , " Robert K . Huntington " operated and trained off the west coast , in Hawaiian waters , and in Far Eastern waters with Task Force 38 , the Pacific Mobile Striking Force . In April the destroyer was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet where she was assigned to a carrier task force , then undergoing extensive antisubmarine warfare training . She spent the following winter in Arctic waters ; then in February 1950 headed for the Caribbean to participate in fleet exercises . In December " Robert K . Huntington " deployed for the first time to the Mediterranean and duty with the 6th Fleet . In the spring she returned to Norfolk and for the next 2 years she alternated cold weather operations with Caribbean cruises ; then from the spring of 1953 until the summer of 1955 rotated between duty in the Mediterranean and exercises with the 2nd Fleet off the U . S . east coast and in the Caribbean . In July 1955 she was in the North Atlantic guarding president Eisenhower ' s plane route as he traveled to and from the Geneva Conference . Following a Caribbean cruise in the spring of 1956 , " Robert K . Huntington " conducted a midshipman training cruise to Europe and the Caribbean . In 1957 she operated in the Caribbean and then in European waters for NATO exercises . In both 1958 and 1959 , " Robert K . Huntington " made 6 - month Mediterranean deployments , while she spent most of 1960 undergoing a fleet rehabilitation and modernization ( FRAM ) overhaul and conversion . Emerging from the shipyard , the " new " destroyer steamed to her new home port , Mayport , and through 1961 operated off the U . S . east coast and in the Caribbean . Employed in ASW exercises off the east coast during the first half of 1962 , " Robert K . Huntington " deployed to the Mediterranean 3 August , and operated in the Black Sea 3 to 12 October . She returned to Mayport 3 March 1963 and spent much of the rest of that year in the Caribbean . For the next 4 years she operated off the east coast , in the Caribbean , and in the Mediterranean . In late 1967 , she deployed to the Mediterranean as part of a hunter - killer force . She returned to Mayport 16 December 1967 . In early 1968 " Robert K . Huntington " continued to operate off the east coast and in the Caribbean until transferring to the Pacific Fleet . In October she deployed to the Far East for 6 months , operating off Vietnam . She returned to Mayport 17 , April 1969 and remained in - port undergoing minor repairs until July 1969 . In July 1969 , " Robert K . Huntington " received a new assignment and a new home port . Operating out of Bayonne , New Jersey she was active in the Atlantic and Caribbean with the Reserve program until October 1973 . At that time , as a result of a survey , she was found to be unfit for further service and was decommissioned 31 October at Newport , Rhode Island " Robert K . Huntington " was stricken from the Navy List on the same day and sold to the Venezuelan Navy in which she was renamed " Falcon " . " Robert K . Huntington " earned two battle star s for Vietnam service .