force in victory. In addition to screening, radar picket duties, and fire support for ground forces, Halsey Powell sank a net tender, a cargo ship and numerous small craft in the lagoon with her guns. The operation a success, she entered Saipan harbor on 21 June, after the carrier forces had decimated the Japanese in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She then steamed to Tinian, bombarding shore positions, clearing the way for troops and screening through the invasion there on 24 July. Following this she spent two weeks on screening and radar picket duty off Guam before returning to Eniwetok on 22 August to join the fast carrier task force. Palau and Taiwan Halsey Powell sortied with Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's famous Fast Carrier Task Force (then called TF 38), on 29 August. Operating for long periods at sea by underway refueling and replenishment, this powerful carrier force represented the ultimate in mobile striking power afloat. During September the carriers, screened by Halsey Powell and other destroyers, struck the Palaus and the Philippines, returning to Ulithi on 1 October. Five days later, with Halsey Powell now under command of Cmdr. Sidney D. B. Merrill, the ships sailed on one of the most important operations of the long Pacific war. After air strikes on Okinawa the great task force turned to its real objective, the airfields on Formosa. The air battle raged from 12 to 15 October, with Halsey Powell assisting in the splashing of many Japanese aircraft. At a cost of three damaged ships, the task force had driven off nearly a thousand enemy aircraft, downing over 500. Leyte As the invasion of Leyte began, the desperate Japanese Navy moved with its remaining units into the Philippines. This three-pronged attack, launched almost without air power, precipitated the epochal Battle for Leyte Gulf. Halsey Powell screened Admiral Gerald F. Bogan's carriers during the strikes which made up one phase of the battle, the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, on 24 October. Battleship was sunk and Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's ships were delayed and confused. That night the bulk of TF 38 steamed north to meet another Japanese fleet, and in the Battle off Cape Engaño next day another major victory was won. Halsey Powell picked up downed pilots from 29 to 30 October and returned to Ulithi with the task force on 9 November 1944. During the remainder of 1944