RPS Rajah Soliman (D-66), the flagship of the Philippine Navy at the time of its sinking during the height of a super-typhoon, was the former USS Bowers (DE-637), named after Ensign Robert Keith Bowers, a naval aviator who died in the Pearl Harbor attack. Launched and christened on October 31, 1943, it was commissioned into active service on January 27, 1944. It saw action in the Pacific naval battles where it was heavily damaged by a direct hit by a kamikaze pilot.

It was repaired and converted into a high speed transport and reclassified as (APD-40) on June 25, 1945. On February 10, 1947, it was placed out of commission. It was recommissioned on February 6, 1951 and joined the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet. On December 18, 1958, it was decommissioned for the last time.


It was transferred to the Philippine Navy on April 21, 1961 as part of the MIlitary Assistance Program and renamed RPS Rajah Soliman (D-66). According to the Bowers website, it was sunk by a typhoon in June of 1962 off the Bataan National Shipyard in Mariveles. But according to the April 7, 1965 Navy Times news item on its salvage operations, it was
on 29 June of 1964. The hulk of the ship was sold as scrap to Mitshubishi International Corporation on January 31, 1966.