On 14 September 1942 Private First Class Herndon was serving with the 1st Marine Division during action against Japanese forces on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. While engaged in a hazardous reconnaissance patrol on the southern slope of a hill, Herndon was mortally wounded. With Japanese forces advancing rapidly on his position and realizing that he had no chance to survive, he asked that he be left with a weapon to cover the withdrawal of his patrol to the top of the hill. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Commencing 26 March 1945, Raymon W. Herndon supported her embarked Underwater Demolition Team 16 and provided antiaircraft gunnery support in the transport area off the invasion beaches. During the assault phase of the Okinawa operation, she assisted in maintaining an outer antisubmarine screen that extended completely around the Hagushi Beach transport area and the seaplane and logisticsanchorage at Kerama Retto. Together with the other ships of the screen, she also provided protection from Japanese aircraft for the naval forces off the beachhead. Later she patrolled remote radar picket stations and bore the brunt of the relentless and determined attacks made by Japanese torpedo bombers, dive bombers, and kamikaze aircraft. She shot down one attacking aircraft and assisted in the destruction of two others on 6 April 1945.
Raymon W. Herndon supported the Okinawa campaign through 19 June 1945, only two days before Okinawa was finally declared secured.
Postwar
After the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, which brought World War II to a close, Raymon W. Herndon transported occupation forces to the coast of China and to ports in Japan. She was then directed to return to the United States.
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