Powers (DE-542) was a United States Navy John C. Butler-class destroyer escort launched during World War II but never completed.

Five days later, on 10 September 1941, Ensign Powers was detached from NAS Miami and was transferred to the Advanced Carrier Training Group, United States Pacific Fleet, at Naval Air Station San Diego in San Diego, California, reporting on 3 October 1941.

After an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine torpedoed Saratoga on 11 January 1942 VT-3 was based ashore, first at Naval Air Station Pearl Harbor on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, then at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, whence the squadron trained and continued to stand alerts.

Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 00 carrier fighters, however, overwhelmed the six-plane VF-3 covering element, and, in concert with heavy antiaircraft fire from the Japanese carriers and their screening ships, shot down ten of the twelve VT-3's Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers participating in the raid.

On 7 January 1946, the contract for her construction was cancelled, and the incomplete ship was sold on 17 June 1947[1][2] to the John J. Duane Company of Quincy, Massachusetts, for scrapping.