"Goldsborough" departed Charleston on 10 April and reached Pearl Harbor, via the Panama Canal and San Diego on 9 May for amphibious assault training in Hanalei and Kawaihae Bay. She sailed on 29 May to rendezvous with a transport force proceeding via Ulithi to arrive off the invasion beaches of Saipan on 15 June 1944. An aerial bomb exploded to starboard as she assisted in repelling a raid of enemy dive bombers. The following day she landed the 2d Company, 1st Battalion, 2d Marines, just south of Charon Kanoa. During the next 5 weeks she escorted supply and troop convoys between the Marshall Islands and Saipan, taking time out for direct gunfire support of troops on Saipan the nights of 29 June and 7 July. She departed Saipan on 28 July to train Underwater Demolition Team 4 in Hawaiian waters, then joined a Beach Demolition Task Group that sailed from Manus, Admiralty Islands, on 12 October to destroy enemy facilities and installations in the vicinity of the proposed invasion beaches of eastern Leyte as well as on the entrance islands of Leyte Gulf. The afternoon of 18 October 1944 she performed shore bombardment operations into concealed enemy positions at Dulag, covering underwater demolition teams headed for the shore. Two shells straddled the high speed transport; and a third hit her number one stack, killing 2 and wounding 16 men. She screened the battleships and cruisers, carrying out a bombardment through the night of 19 October and supporting troops that launched the invasion the morning of 20 October 1944. She departed the following day to embark troops at Noemfoor, Schouten Islands, landing them on the beaches at Tolasa, Leyte, on 18 November 1944. She again arrived off Noemfoor on 19 December for transport of troops to Mios Woendi, Padiados Islands, and thence via Morotai with six merchant ships escorted into Leyte Gulf 6 January 1945. Her next assignment was patrolling the entrance of Lingayen Gulf. She dispatched a medical team to damaged destroyer escort on 12 January, picked up two survivors, and then defended against a "kamikaze" which just missed the stern of "Seusens" before crashing into the sea. "Goldsborough" continued her patrol in the Gulf and off San Fabian until 18 January 1945.