Though she had missed out on the first hop of the leapfrog across the Central Pacific, "Stevens" rejoined the 5th Fleet in time to be part of the second jump. Attached to Task Group 52.8 (TG 52.8), the fire support group, the destroyer participated in Operation Flintlock, the Kwajalein phase of the conquest of the Marshall Islands, in late January and early February 1944. She bombarded the islands before the landings and afterward delivered support gunfire to the Marines until it was no longer necessary.