USS Killen ( DD - 593 ) USS " Killen " ( DD - 593 ) , a " Fletcher " - class destroyer , was a ship of the United States Navy named for Edward Killen , who served in the First Barbary War . Killen volunteered for Lieutenant Stephen Decatur ' s daring 1804 expedition into Tripoli Harbor to destroy " Philadelphia " , a United States frigate captured by Tripolitan pirates . " Killen " was launched on 10 January 1943 , by the Puget Sound Navy Yard , Bremerton , Washington ; sponsored by Mrs . Inez Cowdrey ; and commissioned on 4 May 1944 , Commander H . G . Corey in command . World War II . After shakedown " Killen " cleared Port Angeles , Wash . on 19 August 1944 , escorted a convoy from Pearl Harbor and arrived at Manus , Admiralty Islands on 14 September . Following training exercises the destroyer departed Hollandia on 12 October with the Central Philippine Attack Force that arrived off San Pedro Bay on the 20th . For the next 5 days she gave day and night fire support to troops ashore on Leyte , and during one 30 - minute period on the 21st silenced three enemy artillery positions . When the Japanese Navy decided to contest the landings in the Battle of Leyte Gulf , " Killen " squadron engaged the enemy at Surigao Strait . On the morning of 25 October , at 03 : 25 , she launched five torpedo es toward battleship " Yamashiro " . One hit , slowing her to , enabled other American destroyers to maneuver for the kill . In the widespread fleet actions for Leyte , covering hundreds of thousands of nautical miles , the U . S . Fleet reduced the Japanese Fleet to an ineffective force thus greatly speeding up the advance toward Japan and end of the war . " Killen " resumed antiaircraft screen . While on patrol off Leyte on 1 November she was attacked by seven enemy aircraft . The destroyer splashed four raiders before a bomb from one of the attackers found its mark in " Killen " port side , killing 15 men including Commander Corey . After temporary repairs at San Pedro Bay and Manus , she steamed into Hunter ' s Point , Calif . , on 15 January 1945 , for overhaul . Returning to Manus on 9 May , the destroyer , now with Commander James L . Semmes in command , sailed the next day for convoy escort and patrol duty in the Philippines . Killen formed part of the screen for the cruiser carrying General Douglas MacArthur to nearly every island in the chain to give his " I have returned " speech . Lacking the propulsion system necessary to operate with the fast carriers around Okinawa , " Killen " was kept in the south with the cruiser fleet . She steamed into Brunei Bay , Borneo , on 10 June with the assault forces , and supported the troops with prelanding bombardment . She resumed exercises on 15 June before arriving off Balikpapan , Borneo , on 27 June for fire support missions . After silencing enemy shore batteries on Borneo , " Killen " prepared for the final phase of the Pacific war as she arrived Manila on 14 July . She cleared that port 2 weeks later , and joined the North Pacific Force in the Aleutian Islands . Upon the cessation of hostilities the destroyer was assigned to the occupation forces in the Japanese islands . Departing Adak on 31 August , " Killen " took up station at Ominato in northern Honshū , and supported the occupation forces until 14 November , when she sailed to Puget Sound . From there she proceeded to San Diego , arriving on 2 April , and decommissioning on 9 July 1946 . Target ship . The veteran destroyer served as a target ship during the atom bomb tests in 1958 ( Operation Hardtack I , shots WAHOO and UMBRELLA ) , and in 1962 engaged in high explosive tests in the Chesapeake Bay to assess the structural effects of the ship ' s nuclear exposures . " Killen " was struck from the Navy List and sent to the US Naval Station at Roosevelt Roads , P . R . in January 1963 to be used as a target ship for missile and gunnery practice off the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques where she was eventually sunk / scuttled in a shallow bay in 1975 and still lies today . Studies and site visits made in 1999 by a Puerto Rican marine archaeologist and the University of Georgia discovered nearly two hundred steel barrels of unknown origin and contents among the wreckage of the " Killen " . Based on government descriptions of the nuclear tests in the Pacific , some scientists and Vieques environmental activists have been concerned that nuclear - fallout cleaning materials were likely stored inside those barrels and improperly disposed , possibly entering the local environment prior to sinking or exposing contaminants to the animals and habitat of Bahia Salina del Sur in Vieques after sinking . As of 2010 the origin and contents of those barrels are still unknown . Awards . " Killen " received two battle star s for World War II service .