USS Earl V. Johnson (DE-702) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, named in honor of Lieutenant (j.g.) Earl V. Johnson (1913–42), a naval aviator who was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for "extraordinary heroism" during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Earl V. Johnson was launched on 24 November 1943 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, in Bay City, Michigan, sponsored by Mrs. Selma E. Johnson, mother of Lt.(j.g.) Johnson, and commissioned on 18 March 1944, with Lieutenant Commander J. J. Jordy, USNR, in command.