USS Thompson, a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer, was built at San Francisco, California. She was commissioned in August 1920 and mainly operated in the Pacific throughout her service career, with occasional transits of the Panama canal to take part in fleet exercises in the Caribbean and Atlantic. In early 1921 Thompson steamed south as far as Valparaiso, Chile. She was part of the squadron of destroyers that was involved in the 8 September 1923 Honda Point disaster, but was not herself damaged. In mid-1925, Thompson accompanied the Battle Fleet on its trans-Pacific cruise to Australia and New Zealand.

The 1930 London Naval Treaty placed limits on the Navy's destroyer tonnage, and Thompson was one of many ships discarded as a result. She was decommissioned in April 1930, stripped of military fittings and sold in June 1931. Her new owners converted her to a floating restaurant. Thompson's hulk was repurchased by the Navy in February 1944, placed on mud flats in San Francisco Bay, California, and used as a bombing target. It reportedly still existed, in a much-deteriorated condition, into the 1970s.