On 11 September 1942, "Caldwell" turned her bow northward from San Francisco and joined the screen of an Aleutians-bound convoy. For the next 9 months the destroyer battled foul weather as she shepherded shipping and cruised with TG 8.6 in unrewarded search for the enemy in Alaskan waters. Her guns pounded Attu twice in preparation for the assault which would recapture that American outpost. When soldiers of the 17th and 32d Infantry stormed ashore on 11 May 1943, they were covered to the southward by "Caldwell" and the other ships of TG 16.6. With Attu taken, the destroyer returned to convoy escort; "Caldwell" sailed in the screen of the force which carried reinforcements to Kiska, Alaska on 16 August 1943, the day after the first landings on that rugged island.