After arriving on 6 September, she performed ocean escort duty on convoy runs from Hawaiʻi to Eniwetok and San Francisco into December; then participated in fleet and type exercises until mid-January 1945.

Departing Ulithi on 19 March, she swept enemy minefields in the Kerama Retto on the 25th and 26th; then, after that anchorage was secured, participated in the sweeping operations preceding the main assault on Okinawa.

On the 7th, she resumed sweeping operations in the sea-lanes in the Kerama Retto Okinawa area; and, at mid-month, cleared the approaches to the assault beaches on Ie Shima.

Early in June, she shifted from Nakagusuku Wan (Buckner Bay) to Kerama Retto, off which she performed patrol duty until the 7th; A week later, she resumed sweeping operations which she continued in the Mayako Jima area until the 23d.

Then assigned to post-war minesweeping operations Serene swept mines in the Yellow Sea, off Korea, during late August and early September.

In October, she assisted in clearing the eastern end of Tsushima Strait; and, in early November, she returned to the waters off Korea to operate off the east coast in the Sea of Japan.

On 7 August 1967, North Vietnamese forces began to overrun Coastal Group 16’s base at Sông Trà Khúc River, about 70 miles southeast of Đà Nẵng.

During the Battle of the Paracel Islands, Nhật Tảo took a direct hit from a ship-to-ship missile (China claims the weapon used was an RPG) on her bridge and went dead in the water.

A few days later, a Dutch tanker and a Vietnamese fishing boat pulled 37 survivors of the sunken Nhật Tảo out of the South China Sea.