USS Yarnall (DD-541), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant John Yarnall (1786–1815). Construction and career Yarnall was laid down on 5 December 1942 at San Francisco, Calif., by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 25 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Earl Groves; and commissioned on 30 December 1943. Service in the United States Navy The destroyer spent the first two months of 1944 conducting her shakedown cruise and other training exercises in the San Diego operating area. She departed the west coast early in March and arrived at Oahu on the 19th. For the next 10 weeks, Yarnall carried out additional tactical exercises in the Hawaiian Islands. Marianas campaign On 31 May, the warship stood out of Pearl Harbor with Task Group 52.17 (TG 52.17) and set a course—via Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands—for the invasion of Saipan in the Marianas. For that operation, Yarnall was assigned to Fire Support Group 1 under Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. When her task group began its pre-landing bombardment of Saipan on 14 June, Yarnall screened Cleveland (CL-55) and Montpelier (CL-57) against attack, and also fired 148 five inch shells. On 15 June, the day of the assault, she continued to screen Cleveland and, on the following day, carried out her first call fire mission—a dual-purpose action to help repulse an enemy counterattack and to destroy a bothersome pillbox. On the 17th, as a result of the submarine sightings of the Japanese fleet moving toward the Marianas, Yarnall and 20 other destroyers were detached from direct support for the invasion and ordered to screen the fast carriers. Yarnall joined TG 58.7, Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee's hastily composed battle line, in preparation for what would be the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Her first antiaircraft combat was at 05:15 on 19 June when a Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" tried to bomb Stockham (DD-683) and then began a strafing run on Yarnall. She engaged the attacker with three guns of her main battery; as the plane closed on the destroyer's port quarter it exploded and splashed into the sea, Yarnall'''s first victory. About five hours after that attack, the ship received word of the first of the four large air raids launched by the Japanese Mobile Fleet to attempt to break up the American invasion force off Saipan. At about 10:45, Yarnall and Stockham