The USS FECHTELER (DD-870) was constructed by the Bethlehem Steel Company, Staten Island, New York, commissioned on 2 March 1946, and assigned to duty with the Atlantic Fleet. When the keel was laid, the ship was originally named in honor of Rear Admiral Augustus F. Fechteler, USN, who commanded a battleship division in World War I. However, prior to commissioning the name was shortened to its present form and honors both the Admiral and his son, LT Frank C. Fechteler, an early naval aviator who was killed in a plane crash in 1922. Admiral William F. Fechteler, USN (Retired), former Chief of Naval Operations, is another son of the late Admiral Augustus Fechteler.
In January 1947, the ship passed through the Panama Canal to begin a six year period of operations with the Pacific Fleet. In April 1953, she underwent conversion to become a radar picket destroyer, and made a round the world cruise in 1954 in this status. After a Mediterranean cruise in 1955, FECHTELER returned to the Pacific Fleet, bringing with it the Battle Efficiency "E". FECHTELER left the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in January 1964, carrying the FRAM I conversion.
FECHTELER was a member of destroyer squadron 19, of the Seventh Fleet. She was present at the outbreak of U.S. naval involvement in the Vietnam War, off Hainan Island in 1964, when the destroyer Turner Joy was attacked by North Vietnamese fast boats. FECHTELER was deployed off the Vietnamese coast during the ensuing war.