Following shakedown off Bermuda, "Robert F. Keller" escorted the seaplane tender to the Panama Canal Zone, then transited the Panama Canal on 7 September 1944. She picked up a convoy of four Pearl Harbor-bound merchantmen at San Francisco, California, and escorted them safely to their destination. Arriving on 1 October, "Robert F. Keller" joined Escort Division 72, assigned to screen the aircraft carrier (soon renamed "Anzio"). With the U.S. 3rd Fleet, the group sailed to the Western Carolines arriving 1 November. This became "Robert F. Keller"s advance base for operations until February 1945. During this time her task group, designated 30.7, conducted antisubmarine sweeps as a hunter-killer group in the Philippine Sea and adjacent waters. On 22 December 1944 "Robert F. Keller" rescued four survivors of the capsized destroyer , victim of a typhoon.