USS Sims, lead ship of a class of 1570-ton destroyers, was built at Bath Maine. Commissioned in August 1939, she served in the Atlantic for the next two-and-a-half years, taking part in fleet training exercises, neutrality patrols and "short of war" operations. She transited to the Pacific in December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

As a unit of Task Force 17, built around USS Yorktown (CV-5), Sims operated in the Central and Southern Pacific during the first part of 1942. In early May, she was assigned to escort the oiler USS Neosho (AO-23) as the U.S. carriers maneuvered to confront a Japanese force advancing to attack Port Moresby, New Guinea. On 7 May 1942, in the early phases of the Battle of the Coral Sea, enemy carrier planes found the destroyer and oiler. In an overwhelming air attack, USS Sims was sunk and Neosho so badly damaged she had to be scuttled.