"Hovey" converted to a destroyer minesweeper and was reclassified DMS-11 on 19 November 1940. After intensive training she sailed on 4 February 1941 for duty at Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941 "Hovey" was steaming in company with "Chandler" as antisubmarine screen for the cruiser , engaged in gunnery practice some off Pearl Harbor. The minesweeper immediately took up patrol and convoy duty around Pearl Harbor until 20 May when she escorted a 20-ship convoy to San Francisco, arriving on 31 May. "Hovey" returned to Pearl Harbor in mid-June and sailed on 10 July for the southwest Pacific escorting . She reached the Fiji Islands on 23 July and joined Minesweeping Group of Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner's South Pacific Amphibious Force on 31 July.