Following shakedown and training off the California coast Rawlins put into San Francisco for loading and routing to South Pacific ports.

After delivery to Nouméa, she continued on to Guadalcanal, arriving 8 February to join TransRon 18, then rehearsing for Operation Iceberg, the assault on Okinawa.

In July she returned to Okinawa with reinforcements, then, in early August, carried fresh troops to the Philippines from the east coast.

On 27 July 1946 she terminated her last Operation Magic Carpet run at Pearl Harbor, then swung south, transited the Panama Canal, and on 5 August arrived at Norfolk for inactivation.

Navy owned as of 26 May 1946, Rawlins decommissioned 15 November 1946 and was berthed at Norfolk as a unit of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.