March. Sterett departed Espiritu Santo on 8 March and resumed her original assignment – guarding convoys to the Solomons-Bismarcks area and patrolling the area to prevent enemy reinforcements from being moved into the fray. 1943 On 6 August 1943, Sterett was steaming in "Ironbottom Sound" in the second division of the six-destroyer task group under Commander Frederick Moosbrugger. At 12:00, air reconnaissance reported an enemy force of four destroyers delivering troops and supplies to Kolombangara via Vella Gulf. At dusk, the six Americans passed cautiously through Gizo Strait into Vella Gulf. By midnight, the two divisions were skirting the coast of Kolombangara about two miles (4 km) apart. Radar picked up the Japanese ships heading south at about 30 knots (55 km/h). One division launched eight torpedoes at the Japanese column's port side; then Steretts division loosed their torpedoes and opened with their guns. Three of the four Japanese destroyers took torpedo hits and received fire from 5-inch guns. , the lone survivor, retreated at high speed to Buin. At Vella Gulf, Sterett and her comrades accounted for three destroyers, over 1,500 sailors and soldiers, and a large portion of the 50 tons of supplies. For the rest of August and throughout September, Sterett occupied herself with patrols in the Solomons. On 8 October, she arrived in Sydney, Australia, escorting the light cruiser . The two warships returned to Espiritu Santo on the 24th. At the beginning of November, she accompanied the assault forces to Bougainville, Solomon Islands; and between 5 and 11 November, she supported the carriers while their planes bombed Japanese ships at Rabaul. She screened the carriers that delivered the 9 December air raid on Nauru Island; then she withdrew to the New Hebrides until 27 December 1943. In the Solomons on the last three days of 1943, the Sterett escorted the to Pearl Harbor and on to the Ellice Islands, arriving at Funafuti on 21 January 1944. Two days afterward, she put to sea with the and the . 1944 From 29 January to 7 March 1944, Sterett operated in the Marianas and Marshalls. On the 29th, her carriers' planes struck Roi and Namur islands of Kwajalein Atoll. Next came the 12 February raid on Truk. Five days later, Sterett covered the flattops during raids on Tinian and Saipan. She departed the Marshalls for the New Hebrides, where she joined the Emirau invasion force. Sterett stopped