"Kane" recommissioned 23 September 1939 to serve in the Neutrality Patrol in the North Atlantic. On 7 August she took up inshore defensive patrol along both coastlines of Panama. She then steamed to San Diego, arriving 4 November 1940, to patrol off the coast of California. She overhauled in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard from 4 January to 3 March 1941, she was based at Seattle for patrols north to Alaska, and along the United States West Coast. After the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, she departed Seattle, Washington for Kodiak, Alaska, and escorted troop transports back to Seattle 23 December. Following a similar escort voyage, she arrived at Seward 19 April 1942 for inter-island convoy and submarine patrols among Alaskan ports.