camp on Kiska on the evening of 2 August, unaware that shortly before—on 28 July—the Japanese had evacuated their entire force. Departing Adak on 31 August, Aylwin steamed to San Francisco and remained in the Bay area through mid-October. Leaving the west coast on the 19th, the destroyer served as part of the screen for the escort carriers , , and as they sailed toward the New Hebrides and arrived at Espiritu Santo on 5 November. From mid-November through the first week of December 1943, Aylwin screened carriers Sangamon and Suwannee during the operations to capture the Gilbert Islands. Detached on 8 December, she joined in escorting to Pearl Harbor where they arrived on the 14th. She then helped to screen that battleship along with Tennessee and Colorado to San Francisco which they reached four days before Christmas. 1944 Following repairs at Alameda, California, Aylwin picked up a convoy of tank landing ships and motor minesweepers at San Diego to escort to Hawaii. After tarrying at Kauai between 16 and 20 January 1944, she moved on to the Marshall Islands, reaching Kwajalein on the last day of the month. But for a run to Majuro and back between 8 and 11 February, she served there until shifting to Eniwetok on the 21st to join , MacDonough, and Monaghan in delivering fire support that night on Parry Island. The destroyer then reported to Commander, Southern Screen, for duty. Steaming back to Kwajalein on 26 February, Aylwin patrolled off Eniwetok and Majuro through mid-March as mop-up operations continued at those places. She was assigned next to TG 58.2, including , , , and . On 30 March, the Fast Carrier Task Force commenced intensive bombing of Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations in the Carolines, continuing the raids until 1 April. Aylwin helped to drive off planes during the approach of the carriers on the 29th and 30th and, at 13:43 on the latter day, sighted a damaged Curtiss SB2C "Helldiver" from Bunker Hill air group ditch a short way off. The destroyer altered course and soon thereafter picked up the pilot and his radioman. Returning to Majuro to replenish, Aylwin sortied once more on 13 April in the screen of Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's TG 58.2, bound for waters off New Guinea to support Army landings at Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay, and Humboldt Bay, from 21 April through