Formed to hunt German U-boats, the group recorded its first success on 26 April when Barber and the escorts Frost (DE-144), Huse (DE-145), and Snowden (DE-246), teamed up to sink the U-488 at 17°54′N 38°05′W / 17.900°N 38.083°W / 17.900; -38.083.

After a brief availability at the New York Navy Yard and two weeks of maneuvers at Casco Bay, Maine, Barber resumed her convoy escort duties.

On 9 October, Barber entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for conversion to a Charles Lawrence-class high speed transport.

On George Washington's Birthday, the warship steamed out of Norfolk bound for the Pacific and her first combat duty as a high speed transport.

She departed the safety of Ulithi with a merchant convoy on 5 May and continually felt the presence of the enemy through possible submarine contacts, floating mines, and radio message traffic emanating from Okinawa.

Barber mustered all the hands she could spare to help evacuate the injured from Hugh W. Hadley and then to work on saving the damaged warship.

The enemy never came close by air; but, on 15 May, Barber picked up four Japanese soldiers in a raft and later transferred them to an Army boat for internment in an Okinawa camp.

The high speed transport continued on patrol, enduring nightly general quarters alarms for Japanese air raids.

On the evening of 16 June, while Barber stood rescue-ship watch at anchor off Hagushi, Twiggs (DD-591) suffered a hit by air raiders and sank within an hour.

The fast transport worked through the night assisting in the rescue of the 188 sailors who survived before returning to the anchorage early the next morning.

Released from duty at Okinawa on Independence Day 1945, Barber joined a convoy of four other escorts and 32 LSTs headed for Saipan.

The group entered Wakanoura Bay at Honshū on 7 October and passed three slow weeks while minesweepers cleared a channel to Nagoya.

[3] After another three weeks of screening incoming and outgoing ships, the transport received orders to load passengers to capacity and return home.

After steaming via Sasebo, Eniwetok, Pearl Harbor, San Diego, and Panama, Barber returned to the east coast for pre-inactivation overhaul, and was decommissioned on 22 May 1946.