Ordered to the Pacific, "Hall" departed Charleston, South Carolina on 21 December and arrived at Pearl Harbor 11 January 1944. On 22 January, she cleared Hawaii with Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner's Expeditionary Force bound for the capture and occupation of the Marshall Islands, a giant step across the Pacific toward Japan. Sent with three cruisers and three other destroyers on a special mission to wreck the airfields on Tarao Island during the invasion, "Hall" joined in the devastating bombardment of that island 30 January. Her guns knocked out a gasoline dump with a tremendous explosion, hit several gun emplacements, and then screened the larger ships during the remainder of the firing. Tarao effectively neutralized, the ships then sailed for Kwajalein and the main assault.