Coral Sea. On 12 May—two days after she reached Nouméa— Worden was joined in that port by the cruisers and destroyers of the former Lexington task force. "Lady Lex" had succumbed to massive internal explosions and fires started during the battle. As part of that group, Worden put to sea on the 13th and, the following day, rendezvoused with TF 16 off Efate in the New Hebrides. Formed around the carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8), this force was commanded by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey. Battle of Midway TF 16 reached Pearl Harbor on the 26th. Worden sailed on 28 May with TF 16—the force now under the command of Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, who had replaced Halsey. Later, TF 17— formed around the hurriedly repaired and replenished Yorktown—rendezvoused with Spruance's force to the north of Midway Island. Worden screened Enterprise and Hornet throughout the Battle of Midway from 4 to 6 June 1942. Worden returned to Pearl Harbor on the 13th and was soon assigned to the screen of a revitalized TF 11, built around the newly repaired Saratoga (CV-3). The destroyer escorted Saratoga as she sailed to Midway and flew off reinforcement groups of Army and Marine Corps aircraft before returning to the Hawaiian Islands for training. On 9 July, Worden headed for the South Pacific with Saratoga's task force but was temporarily detached on the 21st to escort Platte to Nouméa, reaching that port four days later. While Platte took on her vital cargo to replenish ships of the carrier task force, Worden patrolled the harbor entrance. On the 28th, Worden and Platte got underway to rejoin Saratoga. En route on the first night out, Worden sighted signal lights in the darkness. She soon took on board 36 survivors of the sunken Army transport Tjinegara which had been torpedoed on the 25th by the Japanese submarine I-169 and sunk about 75 miles southwest of Nouméa. Worden returned to the Saratoga group to the south of the Fiji Islands on the following day, when the carrier forces joined marine-laden troop transports that had sailed from Wellington, New Zealand, for the invasion of the Solomon Islands. Her stay with the carrier was brief, for the destroyer was soon detached to escort the fleet oiler Cimarron (AO-22) to Nouméa, where she landed the Tjinegara's survivors on 1 August. Worden caught up with TF 16 on 3 August and,