Catron stood out of San Pedro, Los Angeles, on 18 January 1945, bound for training in the Solomon and Florida Islands.

She arrived at Purvis Bay on 5 February, and on 21 March reported at Ulithi, Caroline Islands, to combat load for the assault on Okinawa.

Leaving Okinawa on 7 April 1945, Catron sailed to San Francisco to load cargo which she delivered to Guam on 13 June.

Catron made two more voyages from San Francisco to carry troops to the Philippines between 29 October 1945 and 12 February 1946, when she reported at Pearl Harbor to be stripped in preparation for "Operation Crossroads" the atomic tests at Bikini.

Surviving the tests but contaminated by radioactivity, she was decommissioned on 29 August 1946, and remained in the Pacific for radiological and structural study until sunk as a target by Atlanta (CL-104) off Kwajalein on 6 May 1948.