Following shakedown training out of San Pedro, CA, the transport embarked troops at San Francisco and sailed for the western Pacific on 3 January 1945. After pausing briefly at Pearl Harbor she reached Ulithi, in the Western Carolines, on 23 January and served there as station ship until 19 March when she headed homeward. "Admiral R. E. Coontz" made one additional voyage from San Francisco to Ulithi. On her return she touched at San Francisco and San Diego, transited the Panama Canal, and pushed on across the Atlantic to France. She embarked troops for transfer to the Pacific theater; cleared Marseilles on 21 July; and reached Pearl Harbor on 12 August. Underway soon again, she paused at Eniwetok, Saipan, and Guam "en route" to Ulithi which she reached on 28 August, almost a fortnight after Japan capitulated.