Following shakedown out of Bermuda, "Lewis Hancock" in company with "Langley" (CVL-27) sailed from New York 6 December for the Pacific; arrived Pearl Harbor on Christmas Day 1943; and joined Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher’s Fast Carrier Task Force (then 5th Fleet's TF 58, later 3rd Fleet's TF 38), a mighty naval weapon organized to neutralize Japanese airpower and forward bases in advance of leapfrogging American amphibious operations. On 16 January 1944 "Lewis Hancock" sortied from Pearl Harbor with Task Group 58.2 (TG 58.2) for the invasion of the Marshall Islands. Assigned the task of neutralizing enemy airpower on Kwajalein Atoll, the flattops in "Lewis Hancock"’s group smashed the airdrome at Roi on the 29th, destroying every Japanese plane. The next day a second carrier strike hit defensive positions softening enemy emplacements in preparation for landings on the 31st. For the next 3 days planes from the carriers provided close tactical support for the marines who wrested the atoll from the Japanese Emperor. The destroyer returned to Majuro Logoon on the 4th.