The wavy bars alluding to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the pile fluery simulating the prow of a French ship bearing the coat of arms of the French Admiral Francois J. Paul Comte DeGrasse, symbolize that great naval victory of the American Revolution which helped force the surrender of Cornwallis, affecting the issue of the war and the shaping of American destiny. The red, white and blue chief with the two stars, torch and embattled partition line allude to the national colors and the two hundred years since the establishment of the Republic. The embowed arm in armor grasping a trident, an attribute of Poseidon, God of the Seas, symbolizes the awesome fighting power of the modern destroyer.