general quarters at 09:24, the cargo ship took departure from Okinawa at 09:35. Another Flash Red, however, came through within a quarter of an hour, with Lynx noting shipping under attack and antiaircraft fire shooting down several planes. OKU-3 escaped unscathed and proceeded on its voyage unmolested, reaching Ulithi at mid-day on 9 May. Tow duty After taking on fresh water from and fuel from tanker on 11 May 1945, Lynx sailed for the west coast of the United States the following morning. The passage proved uneventful until 27 May, when the ship steamed past Oahu. “While proceeding on [the] routing prescribed in [the] basis sailing directions,” Lt. Cmdr. Berrey wrote later, “several radical course changes were made to give bombing target towing vessels a wide berth. Both vessels were operating well outside of the restricted zone, which is provided for such operations, at Kaneohe Bay, but both showed an utter disregard for the rules of the road and safety at sea, by apparent unnecessary re-crossing this vessel’s bow.” Reaching San Francisco with no further incident on 4 June 1945, Lynx anchored upon arrival and remained there until 8 June, when she shifted to Moore's Dry Dock Company's Oakland yard. After undergoing repairs and alterations, 9–19 June, the ship then returned to the Encinal Terminal on 20 June, and began loading cargo the following day. Completing those evolutions on 28 June, she moved out into the naval anchorage later that same day. Shifting to the Tiburon anchorage during the afternoon watch on 1 July 1945, Lynx secured a towing hawser to section 51 of , along with covered lighter , at 11:06 the following morning, 2 July, and a little under seven hours later took departure from San Francisco in Convoy FE 3 (TU 06.12.15), with Capt. Lyell St.L. Pamperin, the convoy commodore, on board. The tug Hillsboro Inlet, towing open lighter and covered lighters and , accompanied the cargo ship and her tows, with the salvage vessel in the role of retriever. Derangement to her anchor windlass prevented the tug Point Arena, with her tows, section 52 of ABSD-7 and YF-1012, from getting underway with the convoy as it put to sea, bound for the Marshall Islands. Six days out, Protector left the convoy and guided Point Arena and her tows to join up with FE-3, 8 July 1945, and the voyage toward Eniwetok continued, the little assemblage crossing