USS Heermann (DD-532) was a World War II-era in the service of the United States Navy. The ship entered service in 1943 and took part in several battles during World War II in the Pacific theatre of operations, including the Philippines campaign, Battle off Samar and the Battle of Iwo Jima among others. Heermann gained fame during the "last stand of the Tin Can Sailors" in which she and several other destroyers of Task Unit 77.4.3 ("Taffy 3") engaged a far superior Japanese task force during the Battle off Samar in October 1944. Heermann was the only American destroyer of "Taffy 3" to survive the engagement. Following the end of the war in 1945, the ship was placed in reserve from 1946 to 1951, when the destroyer was reactivated. Heermann remained in active service until 1957, when the ship was returned to the reserve. In 1961, Heerman was loaned to Argentina and was renamed ARA Almirante Brown (D-20) while in service with the Argentinian Navy. Almirante Brown remained in Argentinian service until 1982, when the ship was decommissioned. Namesake Lewis Heermann was born on 3 August 1779 in Kassel, Germany. He was commissioned as a Surgeon's Mate in the United States Navy on 8 February 1802. On 16 February 1804, during the First Barbary War, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur left Heermann in command of the bomb ketch while he led a group of American seamen to board the captured frigate in Tripoli Harbor and set the frigate ablaze. When hostilities with the Barbary States closed in 1805, Heermann returned to the United States but soon took leave of absence to study in Europe until 1808 when he returned to active duty in Norfolk, Virginia. Largely due to his pleas for better medical care for the men of the Navy, Congress passed a bill authorizing the construction of hospitals at several naval stations, but the first official U.S. Naval Hospitals were not actually built until after Dr. Heermann's death. He was transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana in August 1811; and, with the exception of a year in the North for his health and an assignment in 1830 in the Mediterranean where he served for an unknown time as Fleet Surgeon of the Mediterranean Squadron, he remained there until he died in May 1833. Description and design The Fletcher-class design departed from US destroyer design, having a larger displacement than previous classes and