After fitting out at New York, "Benham" conducted her initial shakedown training in Long Island Sound before sailing southeast to Bermuda in early January 1944. After arriving in Kingston, Jamaica on 14 January, she carried out four weeks of shore bombardment, anti-submarine, and carrier escort exercises before returning to New York on 13 February. Following post-shakedown availability, she proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia on 28 February, joined with , and escorted the destroyer tender through the Panama Canal to Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 27 March.