High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Brownson (DD-518), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral Willard H. Brownson (1846–1935). Brownson was the first of the Fletcher class to be built with a "square-bridge" configuration, which allowed greater all-around visibility than the earlier ships of the class, which had a "round bridge" or "high bridge" configuration.