They were the destroyer type that was in production for the US Navy when the United States entered World War II.

[2] The Benson- and Gleaves-class destroyers were the backbone of the pre-war Neutrality Patrols and participated in every major naval campaign of the war.

This design was credited with the survival of USS Kearny after she was torpedoed by the U-568 near Iceland in October 1941, before the US entered the war.

[5] The Gleaves class were all completed with 600 psi (4,100 kPa) steam (references vary) superheated to 850 °F (454 °C), double-reduction gearing, and cruising turbines.

[2] However, most of the Gleaves class spent most of the war with only five torpedo tubes equipped in favor of greater light anti-aircraft armament.

[11] In 1943 twelve ships (DD-493, 609, 620, 622, 623, 635, 637–639, and 646–648) were temporarily equipped with three Mousetrap ASW rocket launchers, but this was unsuccessful and the only such installation on post-1930 US destroyers.

All other enlisted sailors had a bunk in large open living compartments astern of the engineering spaces.

No laundry was included in the original design, but a single washing machine was later installed in a compartment the size of a closet.

However, they were judged ineffective in the Korean War due to requiring a large crew compared with purpose-built minesweepers, and were decommissioned in 1954–56.

A total of sixty-six were built, of which eleven were lost to enemy action during World War II: Gwin, Meredith, Monssen, Bristol, Emmons, Aaron Ward, Duncan, Beatty, Glennon, Corry, and Maddox.

Eleven ships of the class were transferred to foreign navies 1949–1959; two to Greece, four to Turkey, one to Italy, two to Taiwan, and two to Japan.

The destroyer shown in the opening and closing scenes of the movie musical On the Town is USS Nicholson.