Ringgold was named for Rear Admiral Cadwallader Ringgold, a Wilkes Expedition officer. Federal at Kearny laid her down on 25 June 1942, launched her on 11 November 1942, and commissioned her on 30 December 1942.
Her name was made at Tarawa. On 20 November 1943 she and Dashiell (DD-659) took battle ensigns into Betio lagoon, where the battleships could not go, to shoot into the Japanese positions at point-blank range. Shore batteries hit Ringgold twice. She grounded on a sandbar and stayed there, slugging it out, for three days and two nights. Her doctor, Herbert Mayer, and the corpsmen operated on 47 Marines in the first 24 hours. Commander Thomas F. Conley received the Bronze Star. Fleet tugs finally pulled her off.
She then fired at Kwajalein and Eniwetok, covered the Marianas, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and earned ten battle stars. Laid up at Charleston on 23 March 1946, she was modernized and transferred to West Germany on 14 July 1959 as Zerstörer 2. The United States struck her in 1974. In 1981 she went to Greece as a spare-parts hulk under the name Kimon.