Three days later, at the entrance to Casco Bay, Maine, USS YMS-169 relieved Stafford of her charge, and the destroyer escort stood into Boston Harbor and moored at Charlestown, Massachusetts.

On the afternoon of 27 June, Stafford joined La Prade and Wasatch off the Virginia Capes to form Task Unit (TU) 29.6.6 which shaped a course for the Panama Canal.

On 31 October, she departed Pearl Harbor with Task Group (TG) 12.3 to find and destroy an enemy submarine known to be prowling the sea lanes between Hawaii and the West Coast.

Over the following two weeks, the task group made several contacts, attacked them with depth charges, but failed to locate and sink the elusive enemy.

The task group made an anti-submarine sweep 60 miles (97 km) in radius around Peleliu before heading for Ulithi, where it arrived on 22 December.

Although air alerts were called from the second day out and HMAS Australia reported an unidentified plane's splashing close aboard, the kamikazes did not succeed in crashing a ship until late on 4 January, when one hit Ommaney Bay.

Late that afternoon, the task force, located just northwest of Manila Bay, came under moderately heavy kamikaze attacks.

Each of the escorts splashed a plane, but the fourth kamikaze crashed into Stafford's starboard side, amidships, just abaft the stack.

Stafford remained in the vicinity of Lingayen until 11 January, when, after receiving the rest of her crew, save casualties, she departed with a slow convoy for Leyte.

Stafford and the tug Apache were detached from the convoy on 30 January, and the two ships put into Seeadler Harbor, Manus, five days later.

She underwent two months of repairs, from 4 March to 6 May, before rendezvousing with SS Philippa off the entrance to San Francisco Bay to head west once again.

On 19 June, organized resistance on the island ceased, and operations were confined to mopping up the remnants of the Japanese defense force.

Stafford began inactivation overhaul at Standard Shipbuilding Corporation, San Pedro, Los Angeles, on 3 January 1946.

Stafford was struck from the Navy List on 15 March 1972; and, on 13 June 1973, her hulk was sold to National Metal and Steel Corporation, Terminal Island, Los Angeles, California, for scrapping.