Peterson was a Spruance-class destroyer commissioned in 1977, built for one purpose: hunting submarines at a time when Soviet boats were everywhere in the Atlantic. The Spruances were a generational leap — larger, quieter, and more capable than the destroyers they replaced, and controversial for looking underarmed until you understood what was hidden below decks. Peterson deployed with carrier battle groups in the Mediterranean and Atlantic through the Cold War and into the 1990s. Decommissioned in 2001, she represented the last generation of destroyers built to fight a peer at sea.