invaded while the fast transport was at Eniwetok. Following three days of screening transports in Agat Bay, she joined a task unit built around the battleships and Pennsylvania. Waters reached Eniwetok on 6 August, remained overnight, and then steamed out of the lagoon to escort Colorado to Pearl Harbor. Waters arrived in Pearl Harbor on 12 August but departed again six days later. On 22 August, she entered San Francisco. After six weeks of repairs and modifications, the fast transport left San Francisco on 7 October to return to Hawaii. Upon arrival in Pearl Harbor on 14 October, she began additional repairs in preparation for training with underwater demolition teams (UDT) which she began at the end of October. She completed that training by the beginning of January 1945 and, on 10 January, departed Pearl Harbor with TG 52.11, built around the battleships and . The task group reached Ulithi Atoll on 23 January, and Waters remained until 10 February when she got underway to join in the assault on Iwo Jima. She arrived in the Marianas on 12 February, conducted rehearsals at Saipan and Tinian, and continued on to the Bonin-Volcano group two days later. 1945 She arrived off Iwo Jima on the morning of 16 February as part of the screen for the fire support group. During the three days before the actual invasion, Waters protected the bombardment battleships from enemy submarines and supported the UDTs in their preinvasion reconnaissance of Iwo Jima's beaches. On the day of the assault, she joined the transports and screened them during the landings. The warship remained in the vicinity of Iwo Jima until the first week in March, supporting UDT operations and patrolling against Japanese submarines. On 5 March, the high-speed transport cleared the area with TransDiv 33 and a four-ship screen and headed for Guam. She remained at Guam for a day and a night, arriving there early on 8 March and departing again the next day. She entered Ulithi again on 11 March and began preparations for the last campaign of World War II—Operation Iceberg, the assault on Okinawa. Following ten days in Ulithi lagoon, Waters steamed out of the atoll on 21 March and joined TG 54.2, part of Rear Admiral M. L. Deyo's Gunfire and Covering Force, for the voyage to the Ryukyus. During the approach for the preinvasion bombardment on 26 March, Waters fired upon a