During the next year, she sailed with seven Atlantic troop convoys, seeing each safely to staging points in Northern Ireland or Great Britain.

After her return to Charleston on 22 October 1944, Ira Jeffery joined a large convoy of cranes, powerplants, and tugs bound for the invasion ports of Europe.

Returning to the United States on 1 February 1945, the ship spent two weeks working with experimental mines in Chesapeake Bay.

[1] After the installation of troop quarters and extensive alterations she emerged in May 1945 as APD-44 (officially reclassified on 23 February 1945) and departed on 12 May for shakedown in Chesapeake Bay.

Ira Jeffery then sailed on 25 May with aircraft carrier Antietam (CV-36) for the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 18 June 1945.