USS Stockham (DD-683), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Medal of Honor recipient Gy.Sgt.

The newly commissioned Stockham conducted shakedown training off the west coast until 20 April, and then got underway for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

She helped repel several air attacks, splashing another enemy plane in the process, and duelled with Japanese artillery batteries ashore.

On 6 October, the destroyer sortied from Ulithi with TG 38.2 for a month-long sweep primarily of the Philippines, but beginning with strikes on Okinawa, on the 10th, and on Formosa, from the 12th to the 14th.

On 25 and 26 October, she joined most of the elements of the 3rd Fleet in meeting and defeating the Japanese Northern Force during the Cape Engaño phase of the Battle for Leyte Gulf.

They hit French Indochina and Japanese shipping on the 12th, bombed Formosa a second and third time on the 15th and 21st, and struck Hainan, Hong Kong, and the China coast on the 16th.

On 14 March, she put to sea once more and operated with TF 59 until the following day, when she joined the screen of the Fast Carrier Task Force for sweeps of Kyūshū, Okinawa, and Kerama Retto.

She parted company with the main body of the fleet on 6 June to escort a group of crippled ships, including the bowless Pittsburgh (CA-72), to Apra Harbor, Guam.

She returned to Tokyo Bay for a month on 19 September, conducted training exercises between 24 and 28 October, and then provisioned for the voyage home.

After more than a year on the west coast, she was decommissioned on 30 August 1946[1] and berthed at San Diego, California The hostilities in Korea in 1950 necessitated an increase in the size of the active fleet.

In December 1953, the destroyer joined the United Nations Fleet and operated in the Far East, stopping at the southern tip of Japan, then traveling to the Pusan harbor briefly and later Inchon, until the summer of 1954.

Stockham returned to the 6th Fleet in the fall of 1956; visited France, Italy, and Greece; and participated in an antisubmarine exercise with American and Italian ships.