High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The first ship named USS Aaron Ward (DD-132) in honor of Rear Admiral Aaron Ward was a Wickes-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. She was laid down on 1 August 1918 at Bath, Maine by the Bath Iron Works, launched on 10 April 1919, sponsored by Mrs. Washington Lee Capps, the daughter of Admiral Ward and the wife of Rear Admiral Capps, and commissioned on 21 April 1919 with CDR Raymond A. Spruance in command. In 1940, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Castleton.