Following shakedown training out of Bermuda and mine warfare training out of Yorktown, Virginia, "Thomas E. Fraser" departed Norfolk, Virginia on 27 November and proceeded, via the Panama Canal Zone, to the west coast, arriving at San Diego, California on 12 December. After five days of intensive exercises off San Clemente Island, "Thomas E. Fraser" departed the California coast, steaming in company with and . On 21 December, the destroyer minelayers rendezvoused with two transports and entered Pearl Harbor on 26 December. "Thomas E. Fraser" devoted the last days of 1944 and most of January 1945 to intensive exercises in the Hawaiian Islands to prepare for her role in the forthcoming assault on Iwo Jima.