It is the only ship of the United States Navy to have been named for Robert Kingsbury Huntington, a naval aviator and member of Torpedo Squadron 8.

He served as rear gunner in George Gay's torpedo plane during an attack against Imperial Japanese Navy forces in the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.

Robert K. Huntington (DD-781) was laid down on 29 February 1944 by Todd Pacific Shipyards, Seattle, Washington and launched on 5 December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Ruth Arnold Welsh.

In July, she witnessed the air burst from a considerable distance, and the more spectacular underwater blast from the comparatively close range of 10 miles.

In April the destroyer was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet where she was assigned to a carrier task force, then undergoing extensive antisubmarine warfare training.

In both 1958 and 1959, Robert K. Huntington made 6-month Mediterranean deployments, while she spent most of 1960 undergoing a fleet rehabilitation and modernization (FRAM) overhaul and conversion.

Emerging from the shipyard, the "new" destroyer steamed to her new home port, Mayport, Florida and through 1961 operated off the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean.

Employed in ASW exercises off the east coast during the first half of 1962, Robert K. Huntington deployed to the Mediterranean 3 August, and operated in the Black Sea 3 to 12 October.