Central Pacific Campaigns
Morrison returned to Pearl Harbor 9 May to train for the giant amphibious leap into the Marianas. Departing Pearl 31 May via Roi, Marshalls, she arrived east of Saipan 13 June for a busy month. Her accurate gunfire supported the initial landings on Saipan the 15th and provided close fire support thereafter. With little aid the crew fought off night air attacks 17 through 19 June. Of 40 enemy planes that approached at dusk the 17th, only 15 got by the attacks of the Navy's carrier interceptor planes; and Morrison shot down three of those.
On 2 August the destroyer rendezvoused off Guam with Task Group 58.4 (TG 58.4) for flight operations following the landings on Guam 21 July. Eight days later Morrison departed Guam for Eniwetok, Marshalls, where she remained from the 13th until she got underway 29 August for the Philippines, arriving off Mindanao the morning of 9 September. That same day, the beginning of a 2-day strike on Mindanao, a Japanese convoy of 50 sampans and freighters was sighted heading north. Morrison led the intercepting force which destroyed the 10 to 15 sampans that survived the strafing by planes. She pushed on for airstrike operations on Peleliu, Palau; the Carolines; and Luzon, Manila, and Samar Island, Philippines, through September.
On 2 October Morrison sailed with TG 38.3 for picket duty off Okinawa, during the airstrikes there and on other Islands in the Ryukyus 10 October. She continued on screen and plane guard operations off Formosa and northern Luzon during a 5-day attack beginning the 12th. On 16 October she screened Houston (CL-81) and Canberra (CA-70) as they retired to Ulithi.
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