USS Abbot (DD-629)

The second Abbot (DD-629) was laid down on 21 September 1942 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works; launched on 17 February 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Grace Abbot Fletcher, the granddaughter of Commodore Joel Abbot; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 23 April 1943, Cmdr. Chester E. Carroll in command.

The destroyer completed outfitting at Boston by 13 May when she reported to the Commander, Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet, for shakedown training. She conducted her initial training out of Casco Bay, Maine, until 18 June and, during the next three months, served as an escort for larger warships conducting their own shakedown cruises. On 10 September, Abbot departed the New England coast bound for the western Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 16 September and, after a brief stop at San Diego, resumed her voyage west on the 28th. The warship arrived in the Hawaiian Islands early in October and began additional training. However, a collision with aircraft carrier Cowpens (CV-25) on 18 October forced her into the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for a repair period lasting almost three months. Abbot finally returned to sea on 10 December and briefly resumed training.

In mid-December, the destroyer stood out of Pearl Harbor, bound for the Ellice Islands, and arrived at Funafuti on the day after Christmas. Training and upkeep occupied her time through the early days of January 1944. Later that month, Abbot became a unit of Task Group (TG) 50.15, the so-called Neutralization Group attached to Task Force (TF) 58 for the occupation of the Marshall Islands. The assignment of that task group-carried out between 29 January and 17 February-was to cut off bypassed Wotje and Taroa and to prevent enemy troops and war-planes there from supporting the Japanese garrisons at Majuro, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok. Abbot joined cruisers Chester (CA-27), Salt Lake City (CA-25), Pensacola (CA-24), and five other destroyers in frequent shore bombardments of the two atolls to keep troops occupied and planes grounded. She continued to perform that duty until 12 February at which time she began patrolling between Majuro and Kwajalein.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Abbot II (DD-629)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.