Early U.S. destroyer performance was also a command problem

Were early U.S. Navy destroyers really as poor as their reputation suggests?

Not all of them; some designs were good, but uneven command and handling badly hurt early wartime performance.

The answer resists treating every early U.S. Navy destroyer as a bad design. Some ships were genuinely capable, while the weakest examples earned much of the class-wide reputation. Poor handling and a shortage of strong destroyer commanders were at least as important during the opening part of World War II. The proposed personnel shake-up is provocatively compared with the submarine service's replacement of unsuccessful commanding officers, since good destroyer commanders produced much better results.