"Stormes" arrived at Pearl Harbor on 30 April and sailed the next day as escort for the cruiser en route to Okinawa, via Guam. The two ships arrived at Hagushi anchorage on 23 May and joined the 5th Fleet. The destroyer was immediately assigned to the antiaircraft screen. She spent the night in the anchorage and took her position in the screen the next day. The ship underwent her first air raid that evening. The weather was bad on the morning of 25 May with poor visibility and intermittent rain squalls. At 0905, a Japanese plane was sighted as it passed between two US Navy planes and headed for directly ahead of "Stormes". At the last moment, the plane turned and crashed into "Stormes"s aft torpedo mount. Its bomb exploded in the magazine under her number three 5-inch mount. The ship was on fire, and sea water poured through holes in the hull. By noon, repair parties had extinguished the fires and plugged the holes. Twenty-one members of the crew were killed and 15 injured.