At Palawan on 28 February 1945, she landed Army-manned LCMs and other craft loaded with personnel and equipment of the 167th Field Artillery of the U.S. 8th Army.

The Australian troops were a battalion of the famed "Rats of Tobruk" which had helped to chase German General Erwin Rommel out of Africa.

During this landing, Rushmore was hit by a Japanese torpedo fired from the beach, which fortunately glanced off her hull without exploding or causing damage.

Returning to the Philippines, Rushmore loaded a 137-foot Japanese army submarine Yu 3 which she carried to San Francisco to serve as a display to help sell war bonds.

On 9 November Rushmore hurriedly left the Bethlehem Steel Yards, Hoboken, N.J., because of the Cuban Missile Crisis and sailed to North Carolina to embark Marine units.

From December until February 1964, she operated in the Caribbean, remaining near the Panama Canal Zone area during and after the riots there, ready to land troops to protect American citizens and Government property.

Ordered inactivated soon after her return, Rushmore decommissioned 30 September 1970 and was transferred to the Maritime Administration's National Defense Reserve Fleet, at Fort Eustis on the James River, in February 1971.