[5] She was powered by two General Electric steam turbines and four Babcock & Wilcox boilers, which produced 60,000 shaft horsepower (45,000 kW) and a top speed of 38 knots (70 km/h; 44 mph).

[7] Hoel was launched on 19 December 1942 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, California, sponsored by Mrs. Charles Bunker Crane, Jr., granddaughter of the namesake; and commissioned on 29 July 1943.

She joined Morris, Franks, and Hughes and Revenge in guarding Air Support Group 52.3 composed of the escort carriers Liscome Bay, Coral Sea, and Corregidor.

Bluejackets on board Hoel saw smoke and flame rise at least a 1,000 feet (300 m) when the torpedo ripped into Liscome Bay and detonated her bomb magazine.

Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix, commander of the Air Support Group, Captain Irving D. Wiltsie and 642 officers and men died with the carrier that sank some 23 minutes later after spewing smoke, flame and redhot aircraft parts for miles around.

At dusk the following day, 25 November 1943, Japanese aircraft spotted Rear Admiral Turner's task force steaming a few miles off Butaritari Island and dropped both float and parachute flares on each side of his ships to light them up as targets for 13 torpedo bombers which swooped in to attack.

The next morning, Hoel joined Rear Admiral Turner's task force and arrived off Tarawa 1 December 1943 for antisubmarine patrol five miles (8 km) off the lagoon entrance.

That afternoon Hoel's guns destroyed several small craft on the beach of Parry Island and fired on pillboxes and troop concentrations inland.

The next day, Hoel took her turn at providing harassing fire and at night illuminated the beaches and the reef to prevent enemy troop movements.

On 4 March 1944, 2 days later after the attack and occupation phase of Eniwetok was completed, the fighter-director team was transferred to Cambria, freeing Hoel to depart for Majuro for repairs.

Hoel then patrolled south and east of Cape Botiangen, New Hanover Island, where her guns destroyed an enemy warehouse 26 March 1944, and, the next day, captured documents which contained valuable information from a 4-foot (1.2 m) outrigger canoe.

On 8 September 1944 they put to sea for the Palau Islands with Rear Admiral W. D. Sample's escort carrier task force unit to provide air support during the invasion of Peleliu.

While continuing to screen the escort carriers, she rescued a pilot and passenger from an aircraft that had gone into the sea on attempting to take off from Ommaney Bay and transferred them to Marcus Island.

Before the Battle off Samar, "Taffy 3" was reinforced by the arrival of Admiral Ralph A. Ofstie with two more escort carriers and Dennis, John C. Butler, Raymond, and Samuel B. Roberts.

The only chance for survival of the little group of American "Jeep" carriers and "tin cans" lay in running to the east long enough to launch what aircraft could be readied before fleeing to the south hoping that aid would arrive before their complete destruction.

While the carriers launched all available aircraft to attack their numerous Japanese adversaries and then formed a rough circle as they turned toward Leyte Gulf, Hoel and her fellow destroyers Johnston and Heermann, worked feverishly to lay down a smoke screen to hide their "baby flattops" from the overwhelmingly superior enemy ships.

At 07:06, when a providential rain squall helped to hide his carriers, Admiral Clifton Sprague boldly ordered his destroyers to attack the Japanese with torpedoes.

Raining fire, Hoel was immediately hit on the first salvo as two 8-inch (203 mm) shells from Haguro sliced through her bridge and main battery director, disabling her FD radar, PPI scope, machine gun control, and radio communications.

US sources often state Kongō was forced to evade those torpedoes in a hard turn, loosing track of the escort carriers, but Kongo's own records do not support this.

A few minutes later, Heermann fired two torpedoes at the same target, and both Japanese battleships were caught in between both spreads and forced out of the battle for an extended period of time, causing Admiral Kurita to lose control over the battlefield.

Despite the horrific damage inflicted by Haguro and Nagato, Hoel still attempted to cover the escort carrier USS Gambier Bay from attacking Japanese ships.

At this point, Yamato had returned to the battle and was shredding Gambier Bay with long range gunfire, but at 8:34 she noticed the crippled Hoel at 9,000 yards and pounced on the destroyer with her secondary battery.

Nearly 48 hours after the destroyer’s demise, the American transport ships LCI-341 and LCI-337 each rescued Hoel's survivors and brought them to Leyte Gulf for medical treatment and transfer back to the United States.