The German submarine U-552 torpedoed USS Reuben James while it escorted a convoy near Iceland in October 1941. The destroyer sank before the United States formally entered the Second World War, killing 100 sailors. Its loss intensified American debate over involvement in the Atlantic conflict.

Woody Guthrie's ballad The Sinking of the Reuben James names crew members and repeatedly asks what their names were. The song's poetic strategy transformed a warship into a democratic memorial rather than an abstract emblem of policy.