USS Benner (DD/DDR-807) was a of the United States Navy, named for Marine Second Lieutenant Stanley G. Benner (1916–1942), who was killed during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Namesake Stanley Graves Benner was born on 5 July 1916 in Arlington, Massachusetts. He lived in Boston, Massachusetts, until 1940. Enlisting in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on 21 August 1940, he reported for active duty at Marine Corps Base Quantico, on 8 November that same year. After training at the Marine Corps' recruit depot at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, he arrived at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, on 21 January 1941. While there, he participated in maneuvers on the Puerto Rican Island of Culebra. Transferred to the Marine Corps Base at Parris Island, S.C., on 12 April, he served there—receiving a promotion to private first class on 26 May, until shifting duty station to what would later become Camp Lejeune at New River, N.C., on 28 September. Benner was promoted to corporal on 11 October 1941 and to Sergeant on 1 April 1942.

Ordered to the field on 8 May 1942, Benner joined Company "A", 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and, after traveling by rail to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, sailed for the South Pacific in late May. After arriving at Tutuila, the battalion reinforced other elements of the 7th Marines already on garrison duty in the Samoan Islands. It remained there, serving as a reserve amphibious force, during the initial landings on Guadalcanal in early August. While on Samoa, Sgt. Benner accepted appointment as second lieutenant on 4 August. The 7th Marines sailed from Samoa on 4 September, for Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. Upon arrival on the 12th, the regiment received orders to move to Guadalcanal as soon as possible. Departing the New Hebrides on the 14th, the transports arrived off Kukum, Guadalcanal, on 18 September. Later that same day, the 7th Marines took up a position astride "Bloody Ridge", guarding the perimeter's southern flank from there down to the Lunga River.

Over the next few weeks, Benner's unit took part in the fierce fighting along the Matanikau River, including the desperate amphibious evacuation west of Point Cruz on 27 September and the far more successful spoiling attack west of the river between 7 and 9 October. The 1st Battalion then returned to their original positions on "Bloody Ridge." On the night of 24 October the Japanese 4th Infantry Regiment closed the perimeter's southern flank. When the Japanese arrived, only Benner's 1st Battalion remained to face them because the 2d Battalion had been pulled out to reinforce the perimeter's western flank the day before.

The assault, coming under cover of heavy rain and darkness, surged out of the jungle just after midnight on the 25th. The Japanese, throwing grenades and firing rifles and machine guns, repeatedly charged the marine positions but were beaten back by American small arms, mortar, and artillery fire. The enemy kept the pressure on the ridge throughout the night, at one point forcing a salient into the Marines' line, but were eventually driven back with heavy losses. The Japanese resumed the attack the following evening, throwing fresh troops into the fray. Artillery, mortars, small arms, and canister-firing 37-millimeter guns cut down the repeated Japanese assaults, forcing the decimated units to withdraw. Benner led his platoon in the fierce two days of combat on "Bloody Ridge" and directed its fire against repeated assaults of enemy forces greatly superior in number. In so doing, contributing to the "rout and virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment" he was killed in action in the early morning hours of 26 October. Benner was awarded the Silver Star, posthumously.

The destroyer escort was named for Benner, but her construction was cancelled in 1944 before it could begin.

Construction and commissioning Benner was laid down on 10 July 1944 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 30 November 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Gertrude A. Benner, 2ndLt Benner's mother; and commissioned at Boston, Massachusetts, on 13 February 1945.

1945 Intended for service as a "picket ship" in the Pacific, Benner received radar and other modifications at the Boston Navy Yard between 13 February and 21 March. She then sailed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on the 28th, arriving there on the 31st. The destroyer conducted four weeks of shakedown exercises, including gunnery, antiaircraft, and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) drills.

On 29 April, she steamed to Gonaïves Bay, Haiti, for ASW training on a friendly "bottomed out" submarine and conducted a shore bombardment exercise off Culebra Island the following day. After her rendezvous with in Windward Passage on 3 May, the warships sailed north on an antisubmarine patrol. Although Benners crew dropped 11 depth charges on a possible submarine contact later that day, they later determined it to be a false contact. She parted company with HMS Reaper on the 7th and sailed independently for Boston, arriving on 8 May for three weeks of post-shakedown availability. Following those repairs, the destroyer steamed to Norfolk, Virginia, where she joined and in preparation for sailing to the Pacific.

Benner got underway for the Panama Canal on 2 June, transited the canal on the 8th, and arrived at San Diego, California on 15 June. After minor repairs, she sailed for Hawaii on the 18th, mooring in Pearl Harbor on 23 June. Benner spent the rest of the month conducting training missions – antiaircraft, fighter-direction, radar jamming, and motor-torpedo-boat (MTB) evasion exercises – in preparation for deployment to the waters off Japan.

In company with , escorting in Task Unit 12.5.3 (TU 12.5.3), Benner departed Pearl Harbor on 12 July. During the transit across the central Pacific, the destroyers screened Wasp as that aircraft carrier launched air strikes against Wake Island on the 18th. After a brief pause at Eniwetok to refuel the following day, the task unit joined Task Force 38 (TF 38) just south of the Japanese home islands on 26 July.

Benner screened in Task Group 38.3 (TG 38.3) during 28 July air strikes against enemy shipping at Maizuru and on 30 July against the Tokyo-Nagoya area. While a typhoon canceled further attacks scheduled for early August, the task group refueled and then moved into position for strikes against northern Honshū on 8 August. Taking up a picket position – about 50 miles (90 km) southwest of TF 38 – with , and , Benner watched as unidentified aircraft approached their position all day. Although most of the enemy aircraft retreated before friendly combat air patrol (CAP), some low-flying Japanese aircraft sneaked under the CAP's protective umbrella to attack the destroyers.

At 14:54, a single Aichi B7A1 "Grace" carrier attack plane dove over Hank, passed across the formation, and, despite withering anti-aircraft fire, banked around to crash into Borie. Large fires broke out immediately, especially in her forward superstructure around the bridge; and the three other destroyers spent the next two hours fending off four more enemy attacks. After Bories damage control teams got the fires under control, Benner spent a fruitless evening searching the water for Borie crewmen lost over the side.

The destroyers continued screen operations between 10 and 15 August before TF 38 retired southeast of Honshū to await developments in the wake of news of the Japanese surrender. Detached on 24 August, Benner cruised off Nagoya to provide an aircraft homing beacon for flights to Tokyo from Okinawa. On 4 September, she joined a task group formed around and cruised off Honshū as that carrier launched POW-relief flights through 9 September. Following leave and upkeep in Tokyo, the destroyer steamed to the Marshall Islands at the end of September – for a week's upkeep alongside a tender – before returning to Japan for three more months of occupation duty.

1946–1948 Departing Tokyo on 3 January 1946, Benner spent the next three months cruising in the western Pacific, visiting Guam, Saipan, and several Philippine Islands before finally sailing for home on 25 March. She arrived at San Diego, by way of Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor, on 11 April. After several months of limited operations out of San Diego, the destroyer received an overhaul at Terminal Island between 29 August and 23 November before returning to San Diego in preparation for an overseas deployment.

On 6 January 1947, Benner departed San Diego in company with and arrived at Hong Kong, via Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok, on the 30th. Tensions in the region were high, and Benner spent eight months cruising the East China Sea in support of the ultimately futile American efforts to resolve the Chinese Civil War. She visited the Chinese ports of Shanghai, Qingdao, and Qinhuangdao, as well as the Korean port of Pusan, before sailing for San Diego, where she arrived on 8 October.

Following 11 months of local operations in California waters, the destroyer departed San Diego for China on 1 October 1948 – mainly to escort the Pacific Mobile Striking Force to Qingdao and to help monitor the withdrawal of Soviet forces from North Korea – before returning home on 23 December.

1949–1956

She remained in California waters, conducting routine operations, into the spring of 1949. During this period, the warship was reclassified as a radar picket destroyer and was redesignated DDR-807 on 18 March 1949. Reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet on 1 May, Benner got underway the following day, transited the Panama Canal on 12 May and arrived at her new home port of Newport, R.I., on the 23rd. The destroyer operated out of there on normal peacetime duty with Destroyer Division 102 (DesDiv 102), conducting routine exercises in Narragansett Bay and making three reserve training cruises over the summer, visiting New London; Poughkeepsie; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. In October and November, Benner participated in a bilateral amphibious landing exercise with units of the Canadian Navy on the coast of Labrador.

After another overhaul at Norfolk and a fourth reserve training cruise – this one to the West Indies between 24 February and 14 April 1950 – Benner embarked on her first Mediterranean deployment on 2 May. The destroyer visited Lisbon, Portugal; the island of Elba; and Naples, Italy; before steaming to La Spezia on 21 June. Following the North Korean invasion of South Korea on the 25th, Benner put to sea in case hostilities broke out in Europe. She operated in the eastern Mediterranean for the next three months – visiting such ports as Istanbul, Turkey; Beirut, Lebanon; and Argostoli, Greece – before coming home to Newport on 10 October.

Over the next five years, the destroyer made three more of these Mediterranean cruises (20 March to 4 October 1951, 2 October 1952 to 4 February 1953, and 4 May to 28 September 1954). In the course of these missions, she visited ports in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. During the latter deployment, she also visited Algiers and Tangier in North Africa. Following each of these overseas tours, the destroyer made short reserve and midshipmen training cruises to the West Indies – mainly visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Culebra Island, Puerto Rico; and Kingston, Bermuda. The warship also conducted several NATO training exercises during this period. On 26 August 1952, she voyaged above the Arctic Circle east of Greenland to take part in Operations "Mainbrace" and "Longstep" before sailing to the Mediterranean in October of that year.