Edward Earl Gyatt was born on 4 September 1921 in Syracuse, New York and later enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942.

Private Gyatt served with the 1st Marine Raider Battalion during the Battle of Tulagi, part of the initial landings of the Guadalcanal campaign.

Her main weapons were the aforementioned three twin 5"/38[b] dual purpose guns, which allowed her to engage air, land, or sea targets at an average of 15 rounds a minute per barrel.

Four Babcock & Wilcox steam boilers produced 60,000 shaft horsepower (45,000 kilowatts) and a top speed of 34.6 knots (64.1 km/h; 39.8 mph) through two propellers.

Her extended hull allowed her to carry 160 more tons of fuel than Sumner-class ships, increasing her cruising range by 30% to approximately 4,500 miles (7,200 km).

[2] Since World War II, the primary role of destroyers and screening ships in a carrier fleet had been to provide air defense.

Following this doctrine, the US Navy began developing new escort ships in the early 1950s, equipping them with advanced surface-to-air missile systems that promised greater effectiveness than older weapons.

[6]: 297, [293–294]  A weakness of early American guided missiles was a slow reaction time and difficulty engaging multiple targets, leaving ships susceptible to simultaneous attacks.

It was hoped that having numerous small destroyers would mitigate the flaws, allowing a large number of Terriers to protect a carrier.

[4]: 61 For her new role, she entered the Boston Naval Shipyard on 26 September 1955 and was decommissioned on 31 October for conversion into the world's first guided missile destroyer.

[c] While the magazine took up the entire width of the ship, there was only space for 7 missiles per each arm of the launcher, greatly limiting Gyatt's practicality in any engagement.

[8][4]: 62, 166  She was armed to fire the RIM-2A and RIM-2B Terriers, initial and immature models of the weapon that had a range of about 10 miles (16 km), a flight ceiling of 40,000 feet (12,000 m), and a top speed of Mach 2.

The system consisted of two 45 square foot (4m2) retractable fins that extended out from midship below the waterline that mitigated the pitching and rolling produced by each launch.

The ship's various trainings demonstrated the Terrier's application onboard escorts, seeing the system adopted to the Navy's rapidly growing fleet of air-defense destroyer leaders.

[6]: 297, 299, 301  However, the battery proved to be too large for Gyatt's small hull, as immense strain was placed on her electrical grid, little room was left for other systems or modifications, and the design itself was overtly complicated.

[13] Issues regarding the Terrier were largely rectified with the larger Farragut-class destroyers as they were the first ships in the Navy built from the keel-up to provide missile air defense.

On 1 January 1963, she reported to Norfolk and operated with the Naval Electronics Facility and tested new technology, primarily radars and sensors, along the US East Coast and Caribbean.