USS Hutchins (DD-476), was a , of the United States Navy named after Naval aviator Lieutenant Carlton B. Hutchins (1904–1938), who though mortally injured, was able to remain at the controls of his aircraft and allow his surviving crew to parachute to safety and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Built by Boston Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts Hutchins entered service in 1942 and was assigned to the Pacific fleet in March 1943. Hutchins took part in campaigns in the Aleutian Islands, amphibious landings at Cape Gloucester, the Wakde-Sarmi operation and Iwo Jima. On 25 April 1945, the destroyer was attacked by a suicide boat and severely damaged. Still, under repair at the end of the war, she was decommissioned in 1945 and sold for scrap in 1948. Construction and commissioning Hutchins (DD-476) was launched 20 February 1942, sponsored by Mrs C.B. Hutchins, widow of Lt. Hutchins, commissioned 17 November 1942. She was planned to be one of six Fletcher-class destroyers built with a catapult for a floatplane but the plan was abandoned. Service history 1943 After completing shakedown cruise in Casco Bay, Maine, Hutchins got underway from Boston 17 March 1943 and escorted two tankers to Galveston, Texas. From there she proceeded through the Panama Canal to San Diego, arriving 11 April. Following an escort voyage to New Caledonia and Espiritu Santo, Hutchins arrived at Pearl Harbor on 30 May for the addition of two twin 40mm gun mounts amidships. On 25 June, while testing her guns in Hawaiian waters, an electrical failure caused a gun to fire into Hutchins''' stack, killing nine and wounding twenty. While being repaired at Pearl Harbor, the ship was fitted with the latest Combat Information Center (CIC) equipment. The ship returned to San Diego on 11 July 1943 for training and got underway with a landing ship tank (LST) group seven days later for the voyage to Adak Island in the Aleutians. She took part in the occupation of Kiska 15 August after the Japanese left the island and in the following months, patrolled and engaged in fleet training maneuvers.Hutchins departed the northern Pacific on 18 November 1943 for Milne Bay, New Guinea and screened LSTs during the landings at Cape Gloucester. Designed to secure the important straits between New Britain and New Guinea, the landings began on 26 December. Hutchins and the other screening vessels came under heavy air attack in the