Bailey was a Benson-class destroyer, DD-492, the third ship named for Rear Admiral Theodorus Bailey. Bethlehem Steel at Staten Island laid her down on 29 January 1941 and launched her on 19 December 1941. The Navy commissioned her on 11 May 1942. Lieutenant Commander Franklin D. Karns, Jr., had her first. J. C. Atkeson relieved him on 4 July 1942.
On 26 March 1943 she was with McMorris south of the Komandorski Islands. Captain Ralph S. Riggs, commanding Destroyer Squadron 14, flew his pennant in her. He was not her captain. Atkeson was. Salt Lake City had been hit and had lost power. Bailey led the destroyers in against Hosogaya's cruisers, in daylight, with no smoke to hide in and no aircraft overhead.
She fired her torpedoes. They missed. Two shells hit her. She was not sunk. One shell hit Coghlan and killed no one. Nachi took several shells. Hosogaya broke off, and the convoy turned back. The Navy gave Bailey the Navy Unit Commendation for that charge.
Atkeson left her on 3 June 1943. She kept on in the Pacific, including the Gilberts, the Marshalls, and later landings in the Philippines and Borneo. She reached Boston on 11 December 1945 and was decommissioned at Charleston on 2 May 1946. She was sunk as a target on 4 November 1969.