Completing
shakedown 5 December,
Rotanin loaded her first combat cargo and embarked her first military passengers at
Port Hueneme, California, and on 12 December, sailed for
Nouméa. Arriving 5 January 1944, she carried troops and cargo to
Guadalcanal, then, on 27 December, continued on to the
Russell Islands. By 2 February, she had discharged all cargo and was underway back to the Guadalcanal-
Florida Island area. From then until March, she carried cargo and personnel throughout the
Bismarck Archipelago, the
Solomons, the
Fijis, and the
New Hebrides. In April, she completed a run to
Auckland,
New Zealand, and in May, she moved supplies to
Manus. She then resumed runs in the Solomons-New Hebrides-Fiji area.
Supporting the Allied invasion forces In August,
Rotanin shifted to the
Marshalls-
Marianas area and at the end of the month she moved further west, to
Ulithi. In October, she carried
United States Army units to the
Palaus, embarked
Marines there, and transported them to the Russells. In November, she returned to operations in the Marianas, extended them to the
Carolines, and in January 1945, returned to Nouméa. February and March took her back to
Micronesia and
New Zealand. In April, she was in the Solomons, and, in May, she took on Army supplies and reinforcements for the
Okinawa campaign. Arriving off the
Hagushi beaches on 21 May, she completed offloading by the end of the month and on 31 May, she steamed east.
End-of-war activity During June and July,
Rotanin again operated in the Marshalls and Marianas. On 28 July, she headed for
Hawaii and the west coast. En route when hostilities ceased, she arrived at
San Francisco, California, on 17 August. In October, she joined the ships assigned to transpacific operations to ferry occupation troops to
Japan and
Korea and to return veterans to the
United States. == Post-war inactivation and decommissioning ==