On the 14th, the ship launched her own CAP, and later sent the fighters on to Tacloban Airfield on Leyte. Sighting Leyte that afternoon, "Kitkun Bay" entered Surigao Strait at 2336, and the following morning anchored in Leyte Gulf. Work on the ship progressed despite an enemy air raid on the night of the 18th. Smoke screens mostly obscured the Allied ships anchored in the roadstead, so the Japanese planes bombed some of the searchlights positioned on the beaches that they could spot.