USS John Rodgers (DD-983), a Spruance-class destroyer, was the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the three generations of the Rodgers family who served in the Navy. John Rodgers was laid down on 12 August 1976 by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 18 March 1978; sponsored by Mrs. Roy C. Smith, Jr., the great, great-granddaughter of Commodore John Rodgers; and commissioned on 4 September 1979.