USS Johnston (DD-557) was a Fletcher-class destroyer built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston, a U.S. Navy officer during the American Civil War. Johnston was laid down in May 1942 and launched on 25 March 1943. She entered active duty in October 1943 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans and was assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Johnston provided naval gunfire support for American ground forces during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in January and February 1944 and again, after three months of patrol and escort duty in the Solomon Islands, during the recapture of Guam in July. Thereafter, Johnston was assigned to escort carriers during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the liberation of the Philippines.

On 25 October 1944, while assigned as part of an escort of six escort carriers, Johnston, two other Fletcher-class destroyers, and four escort destroyers were attacked by a large Imperial Japanese Navy force. In the engagement known as the Battle of Samar, Johnston and the other escorts attacked the Japanese ships to protect the nearby U.S. carriers and transports. After engaging several Japanese capital ships and a destroyer squadron, Johnston was sunk with the loss of 187 lives, including Evans. The wreck of Johnston was discovered on 30 October 2019 but was not properly identified until March 2021. Lying more than 20,000 feet (6,100 m) below the surface, it was the deepest shipwreck ever surveyed until the discovery of USS Samuel B. Roberts on 22 June 2022.

Foot note
Morison 1958c, hlm. 255.
Hornfischer 2004, hlm. 52.

Reference
Hornfischer, James D. (2004). The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553802573.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). Leyte: June 1944 – January 1945. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. XII. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316583176.