USS Worden (DD-352) - 1942

1942

Worden returned to patrol and escort operations in the Hawaiian Islands; and, while thus engaged with the Lexington task force, twice dropped depth charges on suspected enemy submarine contacts off Oahu on 16 January 1942 and again six days later.

Detached from TF 11 on the last day of the month, Worden left Pearl Harbor on 5 February to escort the seaplane tender Curtiss (AV-4) and the fleet oiler Platte (AO-24), via Samoa and the Fiji Islands, to New Caledonia, and reached Noumea on 21 February. Three days later, when the merchantman SS Snark struck a mine in Bulari Passage, Worden went to her assistance, passing a tow line to the sinking ship and pulling her clear of the channel entrance. Worden's medical department tended six injured men, and the ship brought the crew safely to port.

Departing Nouméa on 7 March, Worden—in company with Curtiss—set course for Pearl Harbor and reached that port on the 19th. That day, the destroyer entered the navy yard there and, after her repairs had been finished, joined TF 11 on 14 April.

Worden headed out to sea on the 15th, in company with the Lexington task force, bound for a rendezvous area southwest of the New Hebrides Islands, where, on 1 May, they joined Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's TF 17, built around the carrier Yorktown (CV-5). On the 2d, after the two carrier task forces had fueled, Worden was detached to escort the fleet oiler Tippecanoe (AO-21) to Nouméa. In her absence, the American carriers engaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

On 12 May—two days after she reached Nouméa— Worden was joined in that port by the cruisers and destroyers of the former Lexington task force. "Lady Lex" had succumbed to massive internal explosions and fires started during the battle. As part of that group, Worden put to sea on the 13th and, the following day, rendezvoused with TF 16 off Efate in the New Hebrides. Formed around the carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8), this force was commanded by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey.