The following day, "Kitkun Bay" sent her Avengers aloft for early morning antisubmarine patrols. The ship then worked with Gambier Bay and their screening vessels in providing a triple defense of antiaircraft, antisurface, and antisubmarine cover for the transports of the Joint Expeditionary Force, TF 51, Vice Adm. Richmond K. Turner, as they operated about 60 miles to the east of Saipan. Ens. James C. Lucas, USNR, flew a TBM-1C (BuNo 17055) from the ship that crashed, but a destroyer rescued Lucas and his crew.