He directed the fight against the inferno on the carrier's flight deck and was leading out another hose to continue the struggle against the fires in a ready ammunition room when an explosion occurred.

Shea's crew underwent a month of further training in the Norfolk area before embarking, 13 December, for Brooklyn, New York, arriving the next day.

Sailing with Task Group 27.3 (TG 27.3), she transited the Panama Canal, 20–22 December, and made San Francisco on the last day of 1944.

Another round of training complete, she steamed out of Pearl Harbor bound for Eniwetok Atoll in the western Pacific, arriving on 2 March.

While her primary mission was to protect and assist the minesweepers clearing the area of mines, she also stood radar picket duty all around Okinawa.

Upon receipt of reports indicating the approach of large Japanese air formations, Shea's crew went to General Quarters.

At 08:59, five minutes after the initial sighting, a lookout spotted a Japanese Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka on Shea's starboard beam, closing the ship at better than 450 knots (830 km/h; 520 mph).

With repair parties and survivors from damaged areas scurrying about, helping the wounded and fighting fires, Shea, listing 5 degrees to port, began limping off to Haeushi and medical assistance.

She arrived there at 10:52; her most seriously wounded crew members were transferred to USS Crescent City; and the bodies of the 35 dead were removed for burial on Okinawa.

She arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 2 July, visiting San Diego and transiting the Panama Canal en route.

Shea underwent extensive repairs and post-repair trials before leaving Philadelphia on 11 October for shakedown at Casco Bay, Maine.

This employment was interrupted late in 1950 by a Mediterranean cruise, during which she visited Trieste on a liaison mission with the British armed forces in the area.

Shea continued in this reserve status until 1 September 1973 at which time, after being surveyed and deemed not to be up to fleet standards, she was stricken from the Navy list.