USS Walke (DD-723) was the third Walke. She was laid down on 7 June 1943 at Bath, launched on 27 October 1943 and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 21 January 1944. She is not the Walke (DD-416) that was sunk in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942. As part of Destroyer Division 119 she took part in the Normandy invasion from 6 to 26 June 1944 and bombarded blockhouses and machine-gun positions on 7 and 8 June. She dueled with shore batteries at Cherbourg on 23 and 24 June.
She reached Ulithi on 5 November 1944 and joined the fast carriers. At Ormoc Bay on 7 December 1944 she assisted the destroyer Mahan after three kamikazes crashed into her, rescued crewmen, and sank the stricken ship with a torpedo and gunfire. She covered the Mindoro landing and, on 6 January 1945 at Lingayen Gulf, was hit by a kamikaze that crashed into her bridge. Her commanding officer, Commander George F. Davis, though badly burned, kept conning the ship until he was sure she would stay afloat, and died of his wounds several hours later. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Her repairs at Mare Island were finished by 4 April 1945. She joined the Okinawa campaign on 10 May, first on the radar picket stations, then in the screen of Task Force 32. She joined the fast carriers on 18 August, three days after the fighting ended.
Sources: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) as reproduced on Wikipedia, NavSource Online (commanding officer list), and Wikimedia Commons (photograph record).