While en route, Lloyd was reclassified APD-63 on 5 July 1944 and ordered to report to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 29 June for conversion to a Charles Lawrence-class high speed transport.

Moving to Leyte on 23 November, for the next five months Lloyd transported invasion troops, as the Allies completed the Philippine liberation.

Ten days later he took part in the daring strike at Mindoro, the Japanese held island 500 miles northwest of Leyte.

The next day Lloyd departed and fought her way back to Leyte, splashing four enemy suicide planes during the three-day passage.

Jumping off from Mindoro 8 March, two days later, Lloyd put troops ashore to liberate Zamboanga on the westernmost tip of Mindanao, then steamed to Leyte that evening.

Following repairs and patrol duty off Leyte during April, the ship shifted operations to Morotai on 7 May to participate in the liberation of Borneo.

In the last weeks of the war, the ship trained Army troops in amphibious warfare, then after V-J Day, transported occupation units from Okinawa to Korea.

She departed Okinawa for Pearl Harbor on 26 November 1945, en route to the east coast to join the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.