Kilauea’s dangerous, difficult, and vital service during World War II was to carry ammunition to ships and bases and to issue it to the users.

Returning to Norfolk for local duty, Mount Baker then sailed 29 April 1944 to arm ships in the British Isles ports from which the Normandy invasion was to be staged.

She decommissioned in January 1947 and was placed in reserve at San Diego, Calif. With the rapid expansion of the fleet required by the Korean War, Mount Baker recommissioned 5 December 1951.

She sailed 18 February 1952 to supply ammunition to U.S. and other U.N. forces fighting the North Korean Communists, serving in the war zone from 9 March to 8 November, and then returning to San Diego.

After overhaul at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard, the Mount Baker sailed again to the Far East on 28 September 1967 to aid the United States 7th Fleet, returning to Port Chicago in late April 1968.

In October 1968, the Mount Baker left for its final cruise to the Far East, carrying out its mission of underway (at-sea) transfers of ammunition to the 7th Fleet aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and the one battleship New Jersey off the coast of Vietnam.