Dona Nati had arrived in Manila along with the ships President Grant,[Note 2] John Lykes, Cape Fairweather, and American Leader in a convoy escorted by the USS Boise (CL-47) on December 4, 1941.

[5] The ship was retained under Army control and on April 28, 1943, was one of twenty-eight vessels forming the fleet available to the Southwest Pacific command under General MacArthur.

[8] On November 17, 1941, the ship left Hawaii in convoy with other vessels bound for Guam and the Philippines escorted by the cruiser USS Boise (CL-47), arriving in Manila on December 4, 1941.

[6] The mission of USAFIA initially was "to dispatch airplanes and ammunition to the Philippines, and, in cooperation with U. S. naval authorities, to retain vessels long enough to unload at any port of his selection, to be reached by any route that he chose" and under that mission Dona Nati sailed under Captain Ramon Pons[10] from Brisbane, Australia on February 18,[11] arriving March 10 at Cebu City with supplies that included an estimated 5,000 tons of rations for the Philippines.

ammunition, and miscellaneous medical, signal, and engineer supplies" but all had to be transshipped on smaller, fast interisland vessels, few of which made the trip north successfully.