Embarking nearly 1000 troops of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division, she sailed a week later and off-loaded her passengers at Leyte, subsequently returning to Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, 22 November.

At Leyte Gilliam acted as receiving ship for the crews of damaged warships and undertook medical and salvage operations in spite of continued air alerts.

After loading casualties for passage to Leyte, Gilliam sailed from that port 2 February to embark Marines of the III Amphibious Corps at Guadalcanal and conducted training exercises in preparation for the coming invasion of Okinawa.

Gilliam closed Okinawa on 1 April and in the face of kamikaze attacks debarked reconnaissance parties of the 3rd Amphibious Corps and unloaded vital cargo.

Men of the Headquarters and Service Battalions, 5th Amphibious Corps came on board at Hawaii, and Gilliam sailed 1 September for Sasebo, Japan, and put her occupation troops ashore 3 weeks later.

Following a voyage to Samar, Gilliam moored at Pearl Harbor on 16 February 1946 and prepared to participate in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll in the summer of 1946.