After training out of Pearl Harbor and preparations at Eniwetok, "Kane" landed Marines for the invasion of Saipan 15 June 1944. After the fast carriers of the 5th Fleet destroyed Japan's carrier-based airpower in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the transport supported Underwater Demolition Team 4 in operations off Saipan. On 23 June, she dodged an aerial bomb that sprayed her with shrapnel and wounded three men. She replenished at Eniwetok, then entered Agat Bay, Guam, the afternoon of 17 July. The Japanese had planted three lines of palm-log cribs filled with coral rocks, linked each to the other by wire cables as antiship defences. Her "naked warriors" of Underwater Demolition Team 4, assisted by other teams, blew up hundreds of these obstacles, clearing the way for the marines, who landed 21 July 1944. On 24 July, as the frogmen worked into the night, Japanese mortar fire in Agat Bay barely missed "Kane". She returned to Pearl Harbor 10 August 1944, but entered Leyte Gulf 18 October carrying 100 tons of demolition explosives to be used in clearing the way for the Leyte Invasion landings 2 days later. She carried her demolition teams to the Admiralty Islands, then set course for home and an overhaul arriving San Pedro, California, 4 December.