USS Taylor (DD/DDE-468) was a of the United States Navy, named for Rear Admiral William Rogers Taylor (1811–1889). She was laid down on 28 August 1941 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 7 June 1942, sponsored by Mrs. H. A. Baldridge; and commissioned on 28 August 1942 at the Charlestown Navy Yard near Boston, Mass. Taylor was the first destroyer to anchor in Japanese coastal waters at the end of World War II – one that, wrote Admiral William F. Halsey, "admirably performed every mission assigned to her." World War II Taylor began her naval career with the Atlantic Fleet. Assigned to Destroyer Squadron 20 (DESRON TWO ZERO), the destroyer trained at Casco Bay, Maine, and made her shakedown cruise in the northern Atlantic before beginning duty as a coastwise convoy escort. The latter duty lasted until mid-November when she escorted a transatlantic convoy to a point just off Casablanca. The transit was uneventful, save for the interception of a Spanish merchantman, SS Darro. A boarding party from Taylor sent the neutral ship off to Gibraltar to prevent her from transmitting information about the convoy to the enemy. Taylor returned to the United States at Norfolk early in December and remained there until mid-month. Rennell Island, Jan. 1943 On 17 December, the warship cleared Hampton Roads in company with Task Force 13 (TF 13) on her way to duty with the Pacific Fleet. After transiting the Panama Canal and stopping at Tutuila in the Samoan Islands, the destroyer reported at Noumea, New Caledonia, on 20 January 1943 for duty in the South West Pacific Area. From Nouméa, Taylor continued west to Efate in the New Hebrides group, entering Havannah Harbor on the 26th. There, she became a unit of Destroyer Squadron 21's Destroyer Division 41 (DesDiv 41), one of two four-destroyer divisions screening Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen's Task Force 18, comprising three heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and two escort carriers. On 27 January, Taylor cleared Havannah Harbor with the other ships of TF 18, one of several task forces sent out to screen an important reinforcement echelon to Guadalcanal. Admiral William Halsey, operating upon intelligence which indicated a major Japanese attempt to reinforce their beleaguered garrison on the island, sent out the large screening force in the hope and expectation of a major naval engagement. That sea battle never materialized because the enemy