USS Wedderburn (DD-684), was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. Namesake Charles Foster Wedderburn was born on 2 October 1892 in Chicago, Illinois. He was appointed a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy on 7 July 1911, he graduated and received his commission on 5 June 1915. Ensign Wedderburn served on the cruiser from graduation to the end of 1915. In December 1915, he transferred to the destroyer assigned to the Asiatic Fleet and based at Cavite in the Philippines. He was promoted to Lieutenant (junior grade) on 1 July 1917; and, a month later, his ship departed Cavite with orders to the coast of France. Based at St. Nazaire, his ship escorted convoys in the eastern Atlantic. While on such a mission about west of Gibraltar, Chauncey was involved in a fatal collision with a British merchantman, SS Rose, on the night of 18–19 November. The destroyer sank at approximately 03:17 on the 19th taking Wedderburn and 20 of his comrades to their deaths. Construction and commissioning Wedderburn (DD-684) was laid down on 10 January 1943 at San Francisco by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 1 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Gertrude F. Wedderburn; and commissioned on 9 March 1944. 1944 Following shakedown training along the west coast and post-shakedown availability back at the Bethlehem Steel Co., Wedderburn departed San Francisco on 21 June in company with Fieberling (DE-640). The two warships arrived in Pearl Harbor six days later, and Wedderburn joined Task Unit (TU) 19.3.2 with which she served briefly on plane guard and anti-submarine duty. On 1 July, the destroyer continued her voyage west to Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands where she joined Task Force (TF) 53 for the second assault of the Marianas operation, the battle of Guam. She stood out of Eniwetok on 17 July in company with Task Group (TG) 53.4, the Southern Transport Group. She arrived off Guam on 22 July, the day after the initial assault on that island and, for the next three weeks, performed yeoman service protecting the invasion fleet—upon which the battle ashore depended—from the threat of Japanese submarine attack. Her service in the Marianas ended on 10 August when she shaped a course back to Eniwetok. Wedderburn reentered the lagoon at Eniwetok on 14 August. There, she was reassigned to the antisubmarine screen of a fast carrier task group, TG 38.2, built around Intrepid