USS Killen (DD-593), was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. Namesake Edward Killen joined the Navy on 5 May 1801 as a seaman aboard the schooner . Accompanying her to the Mediterranean he was promoted to Master's Mate on 9 November 1803. He volunteered for Lieutenant Stephen Decatur's expedition into Tripoli Harbor on 16 February 1804 to destroy , a United States frigate captured by Tripolitan pirates in the First Barbary War. After successfully completing this mission on , Killen served on board Enterprise until his death on 24 July 1806. Construction and commissioning 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. 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 torpedoes 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. 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 sailed the next day for convoy escort and patrol duty in the Philippines. Killen formed part of the screen for the cruiser USS Nashville carrying General Douglas MacArthur to nearly every island in