USS Plunkett (DD-431), a , is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral Charles Peshall Plunkett. Plunkett was laid down on 1 March 1939 by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Kearny, New Jersey and launched on 7 March 1940, sponsored by Mrs. Charles P. Plunkett, widow of Rear Admiral Plunkett. The ship was commissioned on 17 July 1940. Service history Atlantic service Prior to 7 December 1941, Plunkett operated in the Western Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico–Caribbean area on Neutrality Patrol. Initially in the latter area, she joined other Neutrality Patrol vessels off Tampico to prevent the departure of several German steamers, then cruised off Martinique, French Antilles to prevent the dispatching of warships, equipment, and gold to the Vichy government. Patrol and convoy missions in the North Atlantic followed, and, on 7 December 1941, she was en route from Reykjavík to Argentia. Plunkett continued such duty until joining Task Force 39 (TF 39) on 20 March 1942. Six days later she departed the east coast for Scapa Flow and arrived in Orkney on 4 April to commence operations with the British Home Fleet. Employed on North Sea patrols and escort work over the first leg of the Murmansk run, she was relieved, by , in mid-May and assigned to escort the battleship back to the United States. Coastwise and Caribbean escort duty followed and in August she returned to the North Atlantic to accompany UK-bound convoys. On 2 November, she departed New York On her first escort run to North Africa. Delayed en route to allow time for the clearance of wreckage from her port of destination, her group delivered its charges with their reinforcement troops and equipment to Casablanca on the 18th. Then, after patrolling off the Moroccan coast she returned to New York and local operations off southern New England. Another transatlantic convoy to Casablanca preceded shore bombardment exercises in Chesapeake Bay, after which she escorted coastal convoys until May, 1943. On the 10th she sailed for Oran, Algeria, with TF 60; and, between the end of May and July, she was employed on hunter-killer (HUK), antisubmarine (ASW), and convoy escort assignments in North African waters. On 6 July, she cleared Mers-el-Kebir as a unit of the Western Task Force for the Allied invasion of Sicily. During the invasion, she screened the merchant ships and minelayers