While patrolling in the "Hit Parade" area east of Honshū, Tilefish sighted many enemy aircraft but found few targets for her torpedoes.

Early in the patrol, she was hampered by the failure of her fathometer; and, throughout the mission, she was plagued by periscope fogging and overcast weather which ruled out celestial navigation.

As Tilefish dove amid the sounds of explosions, she experienced problems which caused her inadvertently to take on a large amount of water.

Had the water level reached the electrical compressor motors, they would have shorted out, leaving her able to surface once but unable to dive again, a sitting duck for enemy destroyers.

For these actions he was awarded a silver star, rare in the submarine service where unit commendations for collective performance were the more typical way to recognize valor in combat.

Finding further contact with the enemy to be very light, Tilefish requested another patrol area and was assigned to the northern Mariana Islands where she searched for targets on 19 and 20 May.

After a refitting by submarine tender Bushnell (AS-15), Tilefish departed Majuro on 22 June 1944 and headed with an attack group for the Luzon Strait area.

On 31 July, after Sawfish had reported a convoy contact off Luzon, Tilefish set course to intercept the enemy ships but never found the quarry.

During the first half of this patrol, she operated in northern waters but was hampered by bitterly cold weather, poor visibility, and hurricane-force winds.

On the morning of 22 December, she sank Chidori, a torpedo boat [758 tons],[9] and evaded a Japanese counterattack of depth charges and aerial bombs without damage.

Underway from Saipan on 13 February, Tilefish proceeded independently to her patrol area in the Nansei Shoto where she prowled the traffic lanes in search of targets.

On 1 March, she rescued a flier from aircraft carrier Hancock (CV-19) whose plane had splashed and sank only 500 yards off the starboard bow of the submarine.

After patrolling the approaches to Tokyo Bay on 22 March, Tilefish set course, via Midway Island and Pearl Harbor, for San Francisco, California where she was overhauled.

In May, she participated in "wolfpack" exercises and in September took part in live load training, using the hulk of the former SS Schuyler Colfax as a target.

From 28 September 1950 through 24 March 1951, the submarine operated out of Japanese ports conducting patrols in Korean waters in support of the United Nations campaign in Korea.

She made reconnaissance patrols of La Perouse Strait to keep the Commander, Naval Forces Far East, informed of Soviet seaborne activity in that area.

Highlights of this period were convoy attack exercises in Hawaiian waters and a goodwill visit to Acapulco, Mexico, early in June 1956.

With four civilian geophysicists on board from the Hydrographic Office, the submarine completed a submerged survey of Eniwetok, Wake, and Midway Island, operating at sea for nearly three months.