the seas southwest of Oahu, Worden rendezvoused with the fleet oiler Neosho (AO-23) and escorted her to a fueling rendezvous with Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch's Task Force (TF) 11 built around the aircraft carrier Lexington (CV-2). While Neosho fueled the ships of TF 11 on the morning of 11 December, Worden assumed a screening station on Lexington's bow and the next night escorted Neosho away from danger when Dewey (DD-349) discovered what looked like a surfaced enemy submarine and went on the offensive. After having seen Neosho to a safe haven at Pearl Harbor, Worden returned to the open sea on 14 December as part of the covering force moving toward Wake Island. The Wake Island Relief Expedition was recalled on the morning of 22 December; and the island fell two days before Christmas. 1942 Worden returned to patrol and escort operations in the Hawaiian Islands; and, while thus engaged with the Lexington task force, twice dropped depth charges on suspected enemy submarine contacts off Oahu on 16 January 1942 and again six days later. Detached from TF 11 on the last day of the month, Worden left Pearl Harbor on 5 February to escort the seaplane tender Curtiss (AV-4) and the fleet oiler Platte (AO-24), via Samoa and the Fiji Islands, arriving at Nouméa, New Caledonia, on 21 February. Three days later, when the merchantman SS Snark struck a mine in Bulari Passage (a break in the reefs near Nouméa), Worden went to her assistance, passing a tow line to the sinking ship and pulling her clear of the channel entrance. Worden's medical department tended six injured men, and the ship brought the crew safely to port. Departing Nouméa on 7 March, Worden—in company with Curtiss—set course for Pearl Harbor and reached that port on the 19th. That day, the destroyer entered the navy yard there and, after her repairs had been finished, joined TF 11 on 14 April. Worden headed out to sea on the 15th, in company with the Lexington task force, bound for a rendezvous area southwest of the New Hebrides Islands, where, on 1 May, they joined Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's TF 17, built around the carrier Yorktown (CV-5). On the 2d, after the two carrier task forces had fueled, Worden was detached to escort the fleet oiler Tippecanoe (AO-21) to Nouméa. In her absence, the American carriers engaged in the Battle of the