After loading personnel and equipment of the 11th Airborne Division, she departed New Guinea on the 11th and returned to Leyte Gulf a week later. Through the 22nd, she unloaded her cargo despite 37 calls to general quarters. During this period, a number of aerial dogfights occurred in her area and, although "Thuban" was not attacked directly, she helped to repel enemy raiders on four occasions. Her mission completed, she departed the Philippines on the 24th and anchored in Humboldt Bay on the 29th.