Ships
- USS Preston (DD-795) Captain from 20 March 1944
Commander G. S. Patrick of the United States Navy became the first commanding officer of Preston (DD-795) on 20 March 1944, the day the destroyer went into commission. She was a Fletcher-class ship, the sixth Navy vessel named for Lieutenant Samuel W. Preston, who was killed in the assault on Fort Fisher in January 1865. Bethlehem Steel laid her keel at San Pedro, California, on 13 June 1943 and launched her on 12 December 1943, with Mrs. R. F. Gross as sponsor.
Patrick took the new crew through shakedown off California and a long period of exercises in Hawaiian waters, working the ship up to fleet standard before she went to war. On 1 July 1944 Preston sailed from Pearl Harbor for the Marianas.
She arrived off Guam on 17 July. Until 8 August she screened the transports lying off the assault beaches while American troops retook the island. After two days in Apra Harbor she headed for Eniwetok, and on 29 August she joined Task Force 38 as the force moved west.
From 6 to 8 September Preston screened the carriers during strikes on the Palau Islands, then stayed with them for raids on Japanese positions in the southern and central Philippines. She covered the landings on Peleliu and Angaur, returned to Philippine waters, and retired with the force to Ulithi.
On 6 October the force sortied again. Preston guarded the carriers through strikes on Formosan air bases and through the operations off Luzon that supported the Leyte landings. On 24 October her unit, Task Group 38.3, came under heavy air attack as Japanese forces opened a three-pronged attempt to drive the Allies from Leyte Gulf, the opening of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.