USS Aaron Ward, a 1630-ton Gleaves class destroyer built at Kearny, New Jersey, was commissioned in March 1942. She had a brief shakedown in the western Atlantic and went to the Pacific in May. During the next month, she served as an escort for the escort aircraft carrier Long Island and several old battleships when they put to sea from the U.S. west coast at the time of the Battle of Midway. In July, Aaron Ward steamed to the south Pacific, where she served as an escort to both logistics shipping and warships during the difficult campaign to hold Guadalcanal. While engaged in this work, she was present when the carrier Wasp was torpedoed and sunk on 15 September 1942, and when the heavy cruiser Chester was damaged by a Japanese torpedo on 20 October.

Aaron Ward also was used in close proximity to the hotly-contested island battlefield. On 17 October, she fought off a Japanese air attack and then effectively shelled enemy positions ashore. She participated in another bombardment on 30 October as part of a task force centered on the light cruiser Atlanta. She escorted a convoy of transports to Guadalcanal on 11-12 November and protected them against hostile air attacks while they were off the island. On the night of 12-13 November, in the intial surface phase of the Naval battle of Guadalcanal, she was part of a group of cruisers and destroyers that intercepted and drove off a superior Japanese bombardment force that included two battleships. Hit several times in that action, the following morning the crippled Aaron Ward was fired on, but missed, by the Japanese battleship Hiei.

After repairs and overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Aaron Ward returned to the south Pacific war zone soon after the Japanese evacuated Guadalcanal in February 1943. She was in nearby Tulagi Harbor on 7 April when warning was received of a massive incoming Japanese air raid. Escaping into the relatively open waters of Iron Bottom Sound, she was attacked by several Japanese dive bombers, suffering one hit and several near misses that left her machinery spaces flooded. USS Aaron Ward sank near shore while under tow back to Tulagi.

Aaron Ward's wreck was discovered in some 240 feet of water during the middle 1990s. Extensively explored by divers since then, she is upright, with her bow and stern seriously distorted by impact with the sea floor. Otherwise, however, the old destroyer is in remarkably good condition, and still shows many signs of damage received in her last fight.

USS Aaron Ward was named in honor of Rear Admiral Aaron Ward, USN, (1851-1918), who served actively in the U.S. Navy from 1867 to 1913.