The first USS Lang (DD-399) was a Benham-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after John Lang, a sailor in the United States Navy. History Lang was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey, 5 April 1937, launched 27 August 1938, sponsored by Mrs William D. Leahy, wife of Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Naval Operations and commissioned 30 March 1939. Lang departed New York 12 August 1939 guarding President Franklin D. Roosevelt's passage to Campobello, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. In November, the destroyer left Newport, Rhode Island, for Galveston, Texas and duty on the Gulf Patrol. Transferred to the Pacific, she reached San Diego 18 March 1940 and Pearl Harbor 2 April, where she participated in fleet training exercises. She voyaged between the West Coast and Hawaii for the remainder of 1940 and early 1941 engaged in escort duties and training. In June 1941 she returned to the Caribbean and Atlantic coast for carrier and antisubmarine training. In December she acted as screen and aircraft guard during flight operations for and Ranger off the Maine coast and Bermuda. 1942 She sailed to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, for patrols with ships of the Royal Navy, then sailed for the British West Indies in January 1942. In transit, she answered a distress call from torpedoed SS Empire Wildebeeste and rescued 21 survivors. She left Bermuda on 18 March for Casco Bay, Maine and sailed 26 March escorting TF 39 which included carrier Wasp. The force rendezvoused with three British ships on 3 April and entered Scapa Flow, Scotland, the next day. The destroyer then became a part of Force "W", sailing between England and the Mediterranean to deliver Spitfires to the besieged island of Malta (see Operations Calendar and Bowery). Lang returned to Norfolk on 28 May and transferred to San Diego a month later. As flagship for DesDiv 15, part of TF 18, Lang departed San Diego 1 July to join shore bombardment exercises off Tonga in preparation for the Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings. Three weeks later she screened Wasp as the carrier launched her aircraft in the first American land offensive of the Pacific war. 1943 Operating from the New Hebrides, Lang carried out patrol and escort missions in the effort to reconquer the Solomons. On 22 and 24 January 1943, she shelled Japanese positions near Kokumbona,