After a brief shakedown and yard availability period, Stokes loaded general cargo at Norfolk and sailed for the Pacific on 11 December.

Stokes arrived off Iwo Jima on 19 February as the assault waves of U.S. Marines landed on the beaches and, for the next two weeks, supplied them with rockets, ammunition, and gasoline.

After disembarking the wounded there, the ship moved to Guam to replace many of her small boats that had been lost or disabled at Iwo Jima.

After the war ended, the ship then operated between the Philippine Islands, Guam, and Japan until routed back to the West Coast.

The 1961 date may be in error, as the ship appears in the background in a 1951 movie called 'The Mob' starring Broderick Crawford, bearing the 'Hawaiian Banker' name.

The lease expired about a year later (22 April 1966) and the ship was returned to MARAD who sold her to Waterman Industries Corp the same day.