On 5 November, "Wichita" was assigned to Operation Magic Carpet, the repatriation of American military personnel. She refueled in Tokyo before departing for San Francisco. The ship reached San Francisco on 24 November, where she went into drydock at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard two days later. Repairs and modifications for further Magic Carpet duty were completed by 1 December. "Wichita" departed for Hawaii on 6 December, reaching Pearl Harbor on 12 December before proceeding to the Marianas. There, the ship loaded servicemen from Saipan and steamed back to San Francisco, arriving on 12 January 1946. She left port on 27 January bound for the east coast of the United States; she transited the Panama Canal on 5–9 February and reached Philadelphia on 14 February. There, she was assigned to the Sixteenth Fleet and was placed in reserve on 15 July. "Wichita" was decommissioned on 3 February 1947 and laid up at Philadelphia.