USS Anderson (DD-411) was a Sims-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Rear Admiral Edwin Alexander Anderson, Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient.

Anderson was laid down on 15 November 1937 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company; launched on 4 February 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Mertie Loraine Anderson, the widow of Rear Admiral Anderson; towed to the New York Navy Yard, and delivered there to the Navy on 18 May 1939; and commissioned on 19 May 1939, Lieutenant Commander William M. Hobby, Jr., in command.

Anderson was the first of the Sims class to be delivered in early 1939, and was found to be 150 tons overweight and dangerously top-heavy due to insufficient metacentric height. This touched off a redesign and rebuilding of the class, completed during 1941. One 5-inch gun (No. 3) and one quad torpedo tube mount were removed, with another torpedo tube mount relocated to the centerline. It was determined that an underestimate by the Bureau of Engineering of the weight of a new machinery design was responsible and that the Bureau of Construction and Repair did not have sufficient authority to detect or correct the error during the design process. This eventually led to the consolidation of the previous bureaus into the new Bureau of Ships on 20 June 1940.

After commissioning, Anderson remained at the New York Navy Yard through June, fitting out, during which time she contributed a landing party of sailors to march in the New York City Flag Day parade on 14 June 1939. Underway from her berth on 5 July, Anderson reached Newport, Rhode Island, on 7 July, mooring to the east dock at the Naval Torpedo Station, and taking on board torpedo warheads, exploders, and test equipment before returning to the New York Navy Yard the next day, pausing there only briefly before getting underway later that afternoon for Washington, D.C.

Anchoring off Quantico on the night of 9 July, Anderson steamed up the Potomac River, rendering the prescribed passing honors abeam of Mount Vernon, and arrived at the Washington Navy Yard at 0721 on 10 July. The next day, a number of high-ranking officers informally inspected the new destroyer, the first of the Sims-class to be placed in commission, Admiral Harold R. Stark, the Chief of Naval Operations, accompanied by Captain H. T. Markland; Rear Admirals Robert L. Ghormley, Director of War Plans, and William R. Furlong, Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, as well as Charles Edison, the Acting Secretary of the Navy.

On 12 July, assisted by Tecumseh and Undaunted, Anderson got underway for Yorktown, Virginia. She loaded depth charges at the mine depot at Yorktown before moving to the Naval Operating Base (NOB) at Norfolk before getting underway on 14 July for Wilmington, North Carolina. Wilmington was the hometown of the man for whom the ship had been named, Admiral Anderson; and it accorded the ship a warm welcome. The local paper editorialized: "It is a pleasure to have you in port and to inspect the magnificent new destroyer named in honor of a distinguished son. The ship and its personnel are a credit to the record and memory of the man for whom your ship is named... Therefore, we bid you welcome, and if there is aught that can add to your entertainment while here, you have but to ask any resident and it is yours..." Anderson gave a tea for Mrs. Anderson, members of the late flag officer's family, and the city officials of Wilmington on the afternoon of 17 July. On the next day, assisted out into the stream by the tug Battler, the destroyer made a departure from Wilmington.

Reaching NOB, Norfolk, on 19 July, Anderson shifted to the Norfolk Navy Yard that same day to take onboard ammunition. After embarking six enlisted Marines for transportation to the Marine Barracks at Guantanamo Bay, Anderson got underway on 21 July for Cuban waters and the initial part of her shakedown cruise. Arriving at Guantanamo on 24 July, the destroyer disembarked her passengers before operating locally over the next few days.

Anderson then visited San Juan, Puerto Rico (from 1–5 August); Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone (8–14 August); and Hamilton, Bermuda (19–21 August); St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (25–28 August); before she reached Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on the morning of 31 August. Underway on 5 September, the destroyer called briefly at Quebec (5 to 6 September) before she headed for Newport. On 8 September, while en route, Anderson sighted a merchantman eight miles (13 km) distant, identifying her as Norwegian by the display of national colors on ship's side. Soon thereafter, a plane, identified as "British" (possibly Royal Canadian Air Force) by the wing markings, circled Anderson at low altitude, obviously scrutinizing the ship thoroughly before banking away and heading for the coast.