The Greyhound—radio call sign for the fictional USS Keeling—in Tom Hanks’ new film of the same name is a Battle of the Atlantic convoy escort. But the real-life destroyer filmmakers used as her stand-in—the USS Kidd (DD-661)—earned eight battle stars in World War II’s Pacific theater.
The Kidd was laid down barely ten months after her namesake, Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, was killed on board his flagship, the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39), during the 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The Fletcher-class destroyer was launched at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Kearny, New Jersey, on 28 February 1943 and commissioned on 23 April.
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