The next morning, following intense shelling by fire support ships and aircraft, the fast transports approached the eastern beaches for reconnaissance by the UDTs. During the afternoon, they made a reconnaissance of the western beaches in the same manner. On 18 February, "Barr" received orders to land her UDT on the Higashi Rocks again to reposition the light before retiring for the night. As she and pulled away from the island, a Japanese bomber flew over "Barr", crashed "Blessman", and caused many casualties.