Coghlan was a Benson-class destroyer, DD-606, named for Joseph Bulloch Coghlan. Bethlehem Steel at San Francisco launched her on 12 February 1942. Benjamin F. Tompkins commissioned her on 10 July 1942 as a lieutenant commander, and she went to the Pacific.
On 26 March 1943 she was one of four destroyers with Richmond and Salt Lake City south of the Komandorski Islands. She screened Richmond, McMorris's flagship, and she laid smoke for Salt Lake City after that cruiser was hit. One Japanese shell hit Coghlan. No one was killed. She was not sunk.
The torpedo charge was Bailey's. Coghlan was in the fight and came out of it. Hosogaya turned the convoy away. Attu was not reinforced that day.
She stayed in the war after the Aleutians. She was decommissioned on 31 March 1947 and sold for scrap in 1974.