With shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay, the new large infantry landing craft departed Key West, Florida, on 12 November for the Pacific, transited the Panama Canal on the 19th, and arrived San Diego, California, on 1 December.

LCI(L)-869 got underway for the war zone on the 15th, refueled at Johnston Island five days later, and reached the Palaus, via Majuro, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Guam, on 7 April.

There she joined a picket line which had been formed to seal off by-passed Japanese-held islands in the area from reinforcements and to protect American bases from invasion.

While on picket station, LCI(L)-869 repulsed a suicide swimming attack, sank several floating mines which threatened American ships, and heard countless mortar shells whined overhead.

With her mission accomplished, LCI(L)-869 returned to the United States, decommissioned at Norfolk, Virginia, in March 1947, and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.