The third USS Porter, DD 356, was laid down with Selfridge, McDougal and Winslow at New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ, 18 December 1933. Commissioned on 25 August 1936, she

Destroyer Squadron 5 1 October 1941 USS Porter, DD 356, Flagship Destroyer Division 9 USS Drayton, DD 366, Flagship USS Flusser, DD 368 USS Lamson, DD 367 USS Mahan, DD 364 Destroyer Division 10 USS Cushing, DD 376, Flagship USS Perkins, DD 377 USS Preston, DD 379 USS Smith, DD 378

conducted her shakedown cruise off northern Europe and participated in ceremonial events before being transferred to the Pacific Fleet, arriving at San Francisco on 5 August 1937.
   Operating from San Diego as flagship of Destroyer Squadron 5 (see table), she and her squadron participated in training exercises and large-scale fleet problems until the outbreak of World War II.
  On 5 December 1941, Porter with DesDiv 9 of her squadron (Drayton, Flusser, Lamson and Mahan) departed Pearl Harbor with Lexington’s Task Force 12 (also including heavy cruisers Chicago, Portland and Astoria) to deliver Marine scout bombers to Midway Island and were at sea when the Japanese attacked on 7 December, returning to Pearl Harbor 13 December after searching to “intercept and destroy” the enemy.
   Porter remained in Hawaiian waters until March 1942, when she began four months’ operations off the west coast. Returning to Pearl Harbor in August, she sortied on 16 October for the Solomons with Enterprise’s Task Force 16—battleship South Dakota, heavy cruiser Portland, anti-aircraft cruiser San Juan and destroyers Mahan, Conyngham, Shaw, Cushing, Smith, Preston and Maury. Ten days later, following the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Porter was hit by the torpedo carried by the Avenger torpedo plane whose crew she stopped to rescue. After the crew had abandoned ship, was sunk by gunfire from Shaw.
   Porter earned one battle star in World War II for this action.

Sources: Robert Stern; Naval Historical Center including Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

David Porter was born at Boson, Massachusetts 1 February 1780. He entered the US Navy as midshipman in 1798, served in the quasi-war with France and the wars with the Barbary pirates, and became a prisoner-of-war when frigate Philadelphia was captured off Tripoli in 1803. Released in 1805, Porter commanded USS Enterprise and later was in charge of naval forces at New Orleans.    During the War of 1812, Captain Porter commanded the 32-gun frigate Essex in a cruise around Cape Horn into the Pacific, where she took as prizes twelve whaling ships before being overwhelmed by HMS Phoebe and Cherub at Valparaiso, Chile on 28 March 1814 and subsequently taken into the British navy.    Later, Porter was a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners and led an expedition to suppress piracy in the West Indies 1823–25. After resigning his commission in 1826, Commodore Porter spent three years as commander-in-chief of the Mexican Navy. He died on 3 March 1843 while serving as US Minister to Turkey. David Dixon Porter, Commodore Porter’s son, was born at Chester, Pennsylvania on 8 June 1813. From 1824, he accompanied his father to the West Indies and in the Mexican Navy before joining the US Navy in 1829, serving in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.    At the outbreak of the Civil War, Porter was given command of USS Powhatan and, in December, 1861, served under his foster brother, David Farragut, in the capture of New Orleans. Then, as commander of the Mississippi Squadron, he operated with Generals Sherman and Grant in opening up the Mississippi River. Later, as commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, he participated in the capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.    Porter received four “Thanks of Congress” during the war. Promoted Vice Admiral, he then served as superintendent of the Naval Academy before being appointed Admiral of the Navy in 1870. He died at Washington 13 February 1891.