USS Leary (DD-158) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II.

On 24 December 1943, while escorting Card through rough seas in the North Atlantic, she was torpedoed three times by the German submarine U-275 and sank with the loss of 98 men.

She, along with nine of her sisters, were constructed at New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyards in Camden, New Jersey using specifications and detail designs drawn up by Bethlehem Steel.

[3] She departed Boston on 28 January 1920,[3] underwent her shakedown cruise in the Caribbean and then conducted training operations along the East Coast of the United States.

In March, Leary transited the Panama Canal and reported to the commander of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

She then was on station during bombing tests conducted by the U.S. Army Air Forces against naval targets, overseen by Billy Mitchell.

[3] DANFS reports that she was also the first to make radar contact with a German U-boat, while escorting a British convoy in the North Atlantic on 17–25 November 1941.

With the entry of the United States into World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Leary undertook regular convoy escort duties.

[9] On 24 December 1943, the task group was caught in a storm in the North Atlantic when at 01:58 in the morning, Leary made a ping on a U-boat off her starboard bow.

After her commander, James E. Kyes, ordered her to battle stations but before the destroyer could react, she was struck by a G7es torpedo fired by the German submarine U-275.

The torpedo struck her starboard side and detonated in the after engine room, killing all of the men there and damaging both propeller shafts.

[11] Three or four minutes after the second torpedo hit, the executive officer, Lt. R. B. Watson, concluded a quick inspection of the ship, during which he found a thick, gooey substance covering the deck.