USS Ralph Talbot, DD 390, known to shipmates as the “Rat Trap,” may well have participated in more engagements than any other destroyer in the Guadalcanal and New Georgia campaigns of 1942–3. Laid down at the Boston Navy Yard 28 October 1935; she was launched 31 October 1936, sponsored by Mrs. Mary Talbot, mother of 2d. Lt. Ralph Talbot, and commissioned 14 October 1937, Lt. Comdr. H. R. Thurber in command.
Prior to the U.S. entry into World War II Ralph Talbot assigned to Destroyers, Battle Force, operated in the eastern Pacific. In early 1941, she began a major overhaul at Mare Island and in April she rejoined the fleet at San Diego. At midmonth, she steamed to Pearl Harbor whence she operated for the remainder of the year. Moored at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December, she manned her guns and began preparations for getting underway within minutes of the start of the Japanese attack. By 0900 she was en route out of the harbor having already splashed her first enemy aircraft. After the attack, she searched for enemy submarines and, on the 14th, sortied with TF 14 on the first of a series of carrier force screening assignments. In January 1942, she sailed with TF-8 during raids against Japanese positions in the Marshalls and Gilberts and in February and March against Wake and Marcus Islands.
Returning to Pearl Harbor with TF 16 on 9 March, Ralph Talbot joined TF 15 on the 19th and through May escorted convoys between Hawaii and the west coast. In early June she escorted auxiliaries to the northwest of Hawaii; which refueled and replenished the victors of the Battle of Midway, then escorted TF 16 back to Pearl Harbor. On the 14th she got underway for Australia and New Zealand, whence she sailed on 22 July for the Solomons and the first of the island assaults which would eventually lead to victory. Assigned to TG 62.6, she screened the transport group to Guadalcanal arriving on the morning of 7 August, then patrolled off the transport area through the landings. (continued) | 
