USS O'Bannon (DD-450) was named for Lieutenant Presley Neville O'Bannon of the Marine Corps, who raised the flag at Derna in 1805, the fight the Marine hymn remembers as the shores of Tripoli. Bath Iron Works laid her down on 3 March 1941, on the way beside Nicholas. She was launched on 19 February 1942, the same day as that sister, and commissioned at Boston on 26 June 1942, Commander E. R. Wilkinson in command. Five 5-inch guns, ten torpedo tubes, a little over 2,000 tons. This is DD-450, not the earlier destroyer of the name.
On 13 November 1942 she was fourth in Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan's column off Guadalcanal, behind Sterett. Cushing and Laffey were ahead of her. Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe was coming the other way with the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, the light cruiser Nagara, and eleven destroyers. Near Savo Island the two columns ran together in the dark.
She fired on Hiei. Laffey blew up close aboard, and the blast damaged O'Bannon underwater. No one aboard was killed. Hiei was disabled in that fight and sunk later the same day. That sinking is not credited to O'Bannon. Sterett was badly damaged and claimed hits on Hiei. That claim stays with Sterett.
At Kula Gulf on 6 July 1943 she was in the van with Nicholas. Honolulu, Helena, and St. Louis were astern of them, then Jenkins and Radford. American gunfire sank Niizuki, and Rear Admiral Teruo Akiyama was lost with her. That sinking is not credited to one ship. Suzukaze and Tanikaze launched the torpedoes that hit Helena. Three of them. The hit is not pinned to one of those two destroyers. Helena sank. Nicholas took 291 of her men. With Radford, the two destroyers got more than 700 off. O'Bannon was not a rescue ship that night.
Off Horaniu on 18 August she was in Captain Ryan's division, and Nicholas led it. Taylor and Chevalier were there too. Torpedoes from both sides missed, including four that Chevalier fired at Shigure from about 9,000 yards. Gunfire nicked Hamakaze and put one 5-inch shell into Isokaze. Those hits belong to Ryan's destroyers, not to O'Bannon alone. She came through undamaged. Most of the barges still made the beach.
At Vella Lavella on 6 October she was with Selfridge and Chevalier, in the dark northwest of the island, before the second American division arrived. Shigure and Samidare were covering the last Japanese troops leaving. Yugumo charged the three destroyers. Gunfire and a torpedo from those three finished her. The kill is not pinned to O'Bannon. One of Yugumo's own torpedoes wrecked Chevalier and set off the forward magazine. O'Bannon then ran into the crippled ship, and the two locked together. She was damaged. She stayed afloat. After the wounded were taken off, La Vallette scuttled Chevalier. Selfridge, still firing at Shigure and Samidare, lost her bow to a torpedo. The ship that fired is not known.
Halsey sent her, with Nicholas and Taylor, to bring Missouri into Tokyo Bay. She left on 1 September 1945, the day before the signing. Nicholas stayed. The next morning Nicholas carried the Allied representatives out to the battleship.
She was sold for scrap on 6 June 1970.
