USS Worden, a 1410-ton Farragut class destroyer built at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, was commissioned in January 1935. She made her shakedown cruise to Central America, then went to the Atlantic for several months before returning to the Pacific in mid-year. The destroyer operated out of San Diego, California, between 1935 and 1939, steaming at various times as far north as Alaska and as far south as Peru. She also took part in fleet exercises in the Caribbean, Hawaiian waters and off the U.S. west coast. In October 1939, after World War II began in Europe, Worden's base was shifted to Pearl Harbor, where she became part of the U.S. Fleet's Hawaiian Detachment.

Worden was moored at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 when Japan's surprise attack on that base opened the Pacific War. She was able to get to sea a few hours after the attack began, and in the following weeks participated in the abortive Wake Island relief expedition. She was employed on patrol and escort duties during the first part of 1942, making two round-trip voyages to the south Pacific between February and May. In early June, Worden screened U.S. aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway. The next month she went back to the south Pacific, where she operated with USS Saratoga during the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August 1942 and in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons later in that month.

After a west coast overhaul in October and November 1942, Worden was sent to Alaskan waters, arriving there on the first day of 1943. Less than two weeks later, while covering preliminary landings on Amchitka Island on 12 January, she went aground. Attempts to pull her off failed and Worden, battered between waves and rocks, was soon reduced to a broken wreck.