The ship devoted the next month to amphibious maneuvers and exercises off Maui before heading back to the West Coast on 6 December and making port six days later.

Returning to Pearl Harbor on 23 December, the ship spent Christmas and New Year's in Hawaiian waters before embarking on further training in preparation for combat operations across the Pacific.

The day and night exercises continued through the third week of January 1945 as the ship's crew honed its skills in cargo loading and unloading, boat-handling, and antiaircraft gunnery.

Tolland and her companion AKA's in the squadron left the Bonins for a period of waiting, training, provisioning, and repairs, while American forces marshalled for the assault on an island one step closer to the Japanese homeland itself — Okinawa.

The attack cargo ship's crew stood to general quarters for hours at a time — night and day — some sleeping and eating at their stations during lulls in the action, to be so many steps closer to their guns at the sound of the alarm.

On 15 April, an "Oscar" flew low over the transport area, attracting fire and spinning into the sea in flames as Tolland and other ships shared the kill.

Loading heavy guns soon after her arrival, she set out for the Philippines, to off-load her cargo at Cebu on 24 May, before moving to Subic Bay and anchoring there for three weeks of upkeep and training.

The entire month of July found Tolland and her sisters engaged in training for the projected invasion of Japan, conducting exercises in Subic Bay and Lingayen Gulf.

Returning to the Philippines, the ship arrived at Zamboanga on 2 September, where she embarked units of the Army's 41st Division for transportation to Kure, Japan, for duty with the Allied occupation forces.