USS Melvin (DD-680), a Fletcher-class destroyer and the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant, junior grade John T. Melvin (1887–1917), who was killed on 5 November 1917 while serving on the USS Alcedo in World War I and is recognized as the first American naval officer to die in that war. Melvin was laid down on 6 July 1943 by Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, in Kearny, N.J., launched on 17 October 1943, sponsored by Miss Gertrude C. Bailey, grandniece of Lieutenant Melvin and commissioned on 24 November 1943. Service history 1944 Following shakedown off Bermuda, Melvin sailed for the Pacific on 1 February 1944. Arriving Pearl Harbor on 4 March, she got underway for Majuro five days later and for the next month conducted antisubmarine patrols and participated in the blockade of the enemy-held atolls in the Marshall Islands. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 2 May and underwent fire support training, departing 31 May with Task Group 52.17 (TG 52.17) for Saipan. Approaching the island on the night of 13/14 June, she sank Japanese submarine Ro-36 with gunfire and depth charges at . A few hours later, while steaming off northern Saipan, she sank a Japanese merchantman. For the next 23 days, she provided counter-battery fire and conducted antisubmarine patrols, claiming damage to a submarine on the 17th, she, escorted ships from Eniwetok and participated in the bombardment of Tinian. On 8 July, Melvin sailed for Eniwetok as part of the screen of the transports carrying troops to Guam, she then screened transports and oilers from 22 July to 7 August. After preparations at Guadalcanal, from 8–21 September she took part in the capture and occupation of the southern Palau Islands before joining TG 33.19 for the occupation of Ulithi. After escorting LSTs to Hollandia, she arrived at Manus Island to prepare for the invasion of Leyte, Philippines. Now with TG 79.11, Melvin sailed on 11 October toward the Philippines, screening the landing craft to be used in the assault on Dulag. Soon after midnight on 20 October, she entered Leyte Gulf and took up her assigned station between Dinagat and Hibuson Islands, carrying out patrols for the next 4 days. In the early hours of the 25th, she joined in the torpedo attack by Destroyer Squadron 54 (DesRon 54), which opened the Battle of Surigao Strait. Assigned with and to