Following shakedown along the California coast, Kenton departed Seattle 27 December carrying some 1,500 Army troops to Pearl Harbor, arriving 4 January 1945.

After amphibious training maneuvers to prepare for operations in the western Pacific, she cleared Pearl Harbor 18 February with troops and equipment for the Philippines on board and arrived Leyte Gulf via Eniwetok and the Palaus 10 March.

Returning to Guam 24 May, she embarked additional casualties and proceeded the next day en route to San Francisco, where she arrived 12 June.

As a unit of the "Magic-Carpet" fleet, she took on board 1,527 homebound troops; departed 29 September; and arrived San Francisco 10 October.

Sailing via San Francisco and the Panama Canal, she arrived Newport News 16 February, decommissioned at Portsmouth, Virginia, 28 March and transferred to the Maritime Commission the next day.