I was on an Adams class DDG. Those were one of McNamera’s screw ups. Aluminum above the main deck because of the weight of the electronics suite and weapons. It definitely had sea keeping issues. I knew of no other access to our berthing compartment other than the ladder. There was a ladder down to the missile computer room below. Other hatches accessed the shaft alleys below.
The first Adams class destroyers were built in the late 1950s. McNamara didn’t become SecDef until 1960. The design and preliminary construction started during the Eisenhower administration.
The design and construction of the Adams class destroyers started a few year before McNamera became SECDEF/