Rear Admiral Noble shifted to Spencer on 1 May for landings in southern Mindanao and later used "Wasatch" as his base when he traveled to and from Manila on important conferences through the end of the month. Shifting to Morotai, the scene of the ship's baptism of fire, "Wasatch" took part in the staging operations which led to the landings on North Borneo. On 26 June, the command ship, with Rear Admiral Noble embarked, cleared Morotai; and she arrived off the target beachhead on 1 July. While General Douglas MacArthur observed from and Rear Admiral Barbey watched from , the first wave of Australian troops splashed ashore to encounter light opposition.