Following shakedown training off Bermuda, the destroyer escort was assigned convoy duty along the Atlantic coast. She escorted troopships to Panama as her first duty and, on her return trip northward, escorted the crippled New Zealand light cruiser to Boston. Although they arrived in Boston on 23 December, "Barber" could not spend Christmas in port. Instead, she pulled out of the harbor on Christmas Day and headed for North Africa escorting a convoy of 95 merchantmen. She arrived in Casablanca, French Morocco, after an uneventful transatlantic crossing. While waiting for a return convoy, she patrolled the Strait of Gibraltar for several days in search of German submarines. After another uneventful voyage, the ship left the convoy at Norfolk and continued on to the New York Navy Yard.