On 18 August, "Stafford" and steamed out of Pearl Harbor escorting TU 16.8.1 to the Marshall Islands. The ships arrived at Kwajalein on 25 August, and "Stafford" escorted to Majuro the following day. On 29 August, she joined in the screen of . The three warships made Pearl Harbor on 3 September, and the destroyer escort operated out of that base for just under two months. During that time, she joined in several anti-submarine warfare exercises. On 31 October, she departed Pearl Harbor with Task Group (TG) 12.3 to find and destroy an enemy submarine known to be prowling the sea lanes between Hawaii and the West Coast. Over the following two weeks, the task group made several contacts, attacked them with depth charges, but failed to locate and sink the elusive enemy. On 14 November, the task group received word that another unit had sunk its quarry; and it was ordered back to Pearl, where it arrived on 19 November.