USS Meredith, a 1620-ton Gleaves class destroyer built at the Boston Navy Yard, was commissioned in March 1941. After operating off the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean area until September 1941, she was sent to Iceland, where she served in the semi-wartime conditions that prevailed until 8 December 1941, when Adolf Hitler's Germany formally declared war on the United States. Meredith escorted a convoy back to the U.S. in late January 1942 and was ordered to the Pacific in March as an escort for the aircraft carrier Hornet. In that role, she participated in the April 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan.

Meredith escorted ships to and from the south Pacific in May and June 1942. She returned to that area in late-August, as the campaign to hold newly-seized positions on Guadalcanal was becoming increasingly intense. For the next several weeks, she served in escort and patrol duties. On 15 October 1942, while helping to bring badly-needed aviation gasoline to Guadalcanal's defenders, USS Meredith was attacked and sunk by aircraft from the Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku. In a tragedy sadly like those of USS Juneau a month later and USS Indianapolis in July 1945, her men and those from USS Vireo endured three days in shark-infested waters before they were rescued. Less than a third of Meredith's crew survived this ordeal.