Seventy-seven destroyers of the United States Navy sitting in reserve at San Diego in 1924. The destroyers are made up of the Clemson and Wickes class destroyers. Two destroyer tenders are also seen: USS Buffalo (AD-8) and USS Prairie (AD-5). Due to the large numbers of destroyers in service, coupled with a lack of manpower and funding after the First World War, the US Navy regulatly rotated destroyers in and out of service as needed. Things were so tough that some of the destroyers in active service were even operated with reduced crews, having as little as half the normal crew aboard. The base at San Diego was one of the major staging areas for rotating these destroyers in and out of service during the 1920s and 1930s.