Early in January 1945, she embarked troops of the Army's I Corps, probably units of the 158th Regimental Combat Team, and sailed for Lingayen Gulf on the northwestern coast of Luzon as a part of Rear Admiral Richard L. Conolly's Reinforcement Group (Task Group 77.9). She and the other ships of her task group arrived off Lingayen on 11 January, two days after the initial assault. Her troops eventually landed near Mabilao about 15 miles east of the town of Lingayen itself and moved up to support other I Corps troops already engaged with the Japanese. During her stay at Lingayen Gulf, "Winged Arrow" was straddled by bombs and near-misses by a kamikaze who crashed close aboard her bow, but she performed her part in the operation without suffering casualties or damage.