The first USS Walker (DD-163) was a that saw service in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Admiral John Grimes Walker. History Walker was laid down on 19 June 1918 at Quincy, Massachusetts, by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company under contract from Bethlehem Steel Co. The destroyer was launched on 14 September 1918, sponsored by Mrs. Francis Pickering Thomas. Walker was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 31 January 1919. Walker got underway on 20 February to rendezvous with the transport as it returned from France with President Woodrow Wilson. Upon completion of this duty, the new destroyer returned to Boston, where she was soon assigned to Division 18, Destroyer Force. She proceeded to Newport, Rhode Island, and loaded her full allotment of torpedoes at the Naval Torpedo Station. She sailed for the West Indies on 6 March and, soon after her arrival in the Caribbean fell into the Fleet's regular schedule of exercises and maneuvers. Walker conducted tactical exercises off San Juan, Puerto Rico, and gunnery exercises out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into the late winter of 1919 and early spring of 1920 before she headed north. After steaming into New York Harbor on 14 April, the destroyer was sent to her base at Newport. Early the next month, she supported the Navy's NC-boat transatlantic flights. Initially stationed at Trepassey Bay from 6 May to 8 May, she later operated at sea from 10 to 17 May, serving as one of the chain of picket ships to provide the NC flying boats with position reports and bearings. When this mission was completed, she returned to Newport on 20 May. Her next port of call was Annapolis, Maryland, in early June for a two-day visit during Naval Academy graduation exercises, after which Walker headed south and transited the Panama Canal on 24 July. She called briefly at Acapulco, Mexico, for two days before steaming for southern California, arriving at Coronado on 8 August. Based at San Diego, Walker conducted local operations off the United States West Coast into late 1920, when she was assigned to the Reserve Destroyer Flotilla. She embarked naval reservists for an indoctrination cruise on 27 October 1920 and remained in "rotating reserve" duty, conducting periodic target practices, full-power runs, and undergoing overhauls at the Mare Island Navy Yard. Decommissioned on 7 June 1922, as part of an austerity program,