After fitting out and a short shakedown period, "Starling" sortied from San Francisco, California, on 22 January 1943 with a convoy bound for Hawaii and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 February. On 16 April, she sailed for the South Pacific. From 25 April to early July, the minesweeper shuttled between Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, the New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. She escorted a convoy from Noumea to Guadalcanal on 2 July and, from the 5th to the 16th, patrolled in the Solomon Islands between Lunga and Tulagi. She then resumed inter-island convoy duty which occupied her until mid-October.