USS Preston, a 1480-ton Mahan class destroyer built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, was commissioned in October 1936. She operated in the Pacific through her entire service career, as a unit of the United States Fleet during the 1930s and early 1940s and thereafter as part of the Pacific Fleet. Following the outbreak of war with Japan in December 1941, Preston was employed on patrol and escort duties. At the beginning of June 1942 she steamed from the U.S. west coast to Hawaii and operated in that area until October 1942. She was then transferred to the south Pacific to join the Guadalcanal campaign. Late in October, she participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands as an escort for U.S. aircraft carriers.

A few weeks later, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Preston was one of four destroyers attached to a task force built around the battleships Washington (BB-56) and South Dakota (BB-57). Sent into Guadalcanal's Iron Bottom Sound on the night of 14-15 November 1942, the U.S. destroyers engaged a force of Japanese cruisers and destroyers south of Savo Island. In this short and intense action, Preston was fatally damaged by enemy shellfire and quickly sank, with the loss of over one hundred of her crew. However, within a few minutes the U.S. battleships fought other Japanese warships, successfully thwarting a potentially devastating bombardment of U.S. forces on Guadalcanal and thus effectively ending enemy hopes of retaking the island.