Ash arrived at the section base at Bishop's Point on the island of Oahu on 28 August and began working on the nets that protected Pearl Harbor.

She was at the Bishop's Point section base when the Japanese attacked American warships and installations at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941.

Though she fired sporadically at some of the enemy planes during the two hours of the attack, she claimed no kills and suffered neither casualties nor damage.

Ash continued to operate in the Pearl Harbor area until 11 May 1946, when she got underway for San Francisco, California.

The net layer was moored at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard until 1 November when she got underway for Vancouver, Washington.