USS John D. Henley (DD-553) was a Fletcher-class destroyer. She was launched on 15 November 1942 and commissioned on 2 February 1944, with Charles Hughes Smith as captain.
Shakedown from Bermuda brought her to Norfolk on 28 March 1944. She then passed through the Panama Canal into the Pacific and reached Pearl Harbor on 23 April. After operational training she escorted fleet oilers to Majuro and was back on 17 May. On 27 May she sailed for Majuro again, and there she became flagship of a refueling task group.
The group left on 6 June 1944 for the Marianas, refueling the fleet while Saipan and Tinian were captured and occupied. Air attack hit the ships on 17 and 18 June. They returned to Eniwetok on 14 August. As amphibious forces prepared to enter the Palaus, Henley joined Task Group 30.8 and departed Manus on 1 September, once more flagship of the refueling ships, for the strikes on Peleliu and the island's capture. Oilers and escorts kept working from Ulithi into November in support of the carrier forces striking the Philippines. Captain J. T. Acuff headed that unit, which did much to sustain those wide-ranging carriers. In December Henley moved to Guam and operated on her own as an escort and patrol ship among the Marshall and Mariana Islands.
She arrived at Ulithi on 31 January 1945 and trained in covering Underwater Demolition Teams. On 14 February she sailed for Iwo Jima, the next major landing on the road toward Japan, and arrived two days later. She took part in the bombardment before the landing. After the assault on 19 February she stayed through the bitter fighting ashore, on fire support, screening, and radar picket duty. She returned to Ulithi on 5 March to prepare for Okinawa.
Henley sailed on 21 March for Okinawa, the last and largest amphibious operation in the Pacific. She screened the light carriers while their planes gave air support to the troops ashore. Air attacks came at intervals. She kept screening her carrier group, with logistics stops at Kerama Retto, until 24 June, and she arrived in Leyte Gulf on 27 June 1945. Smith's command ended on 30 June, and Simon Everett Ramey became captain. On 1 July the ship went north of Okinawa to cover minesweeping. She returned to Buckner Bay on 7 August and was there on 15 August, when the war ended.
On 24 August she took an air-sea rescue station off Japan. On 2 September, the day Japan formally surrendered, she started for California and reached San Francisco on 24 September. After an overhaul she was decommissioned on 30 April 1946 at San Diego and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet, berthed at Bremerton, Washington. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 May 1968. In May 1970 she was sold and broken up for scrap. She received six battle stars for her World War II service.