On the night of 27–28 November, the destroyer led the four ships of Destroyer Division 43 (DesDiv 43) in a night sweep into Ormoc Bay, preparatory to American landings there. Her mission was one of the first penetrations of these waters since the Americans had been forcibly ejected from the Philippines almost three years before. While bombarding Japanese troop concentrations, she kept on the lookout for whatever small Japanese coastal naval craft might be encountered. The ships poured shells onto the shores around the bay for an hour, before they proceeded into the Camotes Sea in search of shipping.