USS Thatcher (DD-514), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher (1806–1880).

Thatcher was laid down on 20 June 1942 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 6 December 1942; sponsored by Miss Charlotte L. Hyde; and commissioned on 10 February 1943, Lieutenant Commander Leland R. Lampman in command.

The destroyer held her shakedown training in Casco Bay and was then assigned escort duty. She stood out of New York on 29 April with convoy UGF-8 for Casablanca and returned with GUF-8 on 31 May. On 11 June, Thatcher departed the east coast for duty in the Pacific. She joined the Pacific Fleet on the 19th and, after calling at Mare Island Naval Shipyard for armament modifications, arrived at Pearl Harbor on 31 July.

On 22 August, Thatcher joined the fast aircraft carrier task group of Rear Admiral Charles A. Pownall. It steamed toward Marcus Island and launched air attacks against that enemy base on the 31st. The group returned to Pearl Harbor on 7 September.

The following week, the destroyer got underway for the New Hebrides and arrived at Espiritu Santo on the 27th. She performed escort duty between Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal and then screened a resupply convoy to Vella Lavella in mid-October. In late October, Task Force 39 (TF 39), composed of Cruiser Division 12 and Destroyer Divisions (DesDiv) 45 and 46, was assembled at Purvis Bay to support the landings on Bougainville. The force—including Thatcher in DesDiv 46—sortied on 30 October.

It bombarded the Buka-Bonis airfields on the night of 31 October and 1 November and then made a high-speed run to the southern tip of the island to shell airfields in the Shortland Islands. After the landings on Cape Torokina on 1 November, TF 39 protected the amphibious forces from enemy interference. That afternoon, TF 39 was ordered to intercept a force of enemy cruisers and destroyers that had left Rabaul to destroy American shipping in Empress Augusta Bay.