USS Anthony (DD-515), a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Marine Sergeant Major William Anthony (1853–1899). Construction Anthony was laid down on 17 August 1942, at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 20 December 1942; sponsored by Miss Alice Anthony and Miss Frances Anthony, granddaughters of Sergeant Major William Anthony; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard, on 26 February 1943. 1943 The destroyer got underway on 26 March for a shakedown training out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and arrived back in Boston on 27 April for a tender availability. She then headed for Norfolk, Virginia but departed Hampton Roads on 10 May, bound for the Pacific. After transiting the Panama Canal, Anthony joined the Pacific Fleet and arrived in Pearl Harbor on 31 May. Two months of intensive training for the destroyer ensued. She left Hawaiian waters on 5 August in the screen of a convoy bound, via Pago Pago, Samoa, for Efate Island, New Hebrides. Anthony dropped anchor off Efate on 27 August. Her next several weeks were devoted to more training exercises. Then, late in October, Anthony was among the destroyers escorting troop transports to the Solomon Islands for landings on Bougainville. She took part in a preinvasion bombardment and stood by while marines landed on the beaches of Empress Augusta Bay on 1 November. The destroyers pulled into Purvis Bay, Florida Island, on 3 November. However, she returned to Bougainville on 8 November to reinforce American naval forces off that island. Despite numerous air attacks, Anthony emerged unscathed from covering the transports during their successful unloading. She pulled into Tulagi on 15 November and soon began escorting ships carrying troops and supplies to various points in the Solomon Islands. 1944 This routine was interrupted for the destroyer on 20 January 1944 by an order to proceed to Bougainville Strait. There, Anthony encountered several small Japanese ships and destroyed a gunboat and several barges before resuming her escort duties. The ship got underway on 15 February to shepherd a group of LSTs to the landing sites on Green Island. Although Anthony was originally slated to perform gunfire support duties, the American troops encountered such light enemy opposition when they went ashore that she was not required to carry out that assignment. After a brief respite at Purvis Bay, the destroyer sailed on 23 February to