After overhaul Lipan departed for Okinawa on 24 February dropped fuel barges at Pearl Harbor and Guam, and arrived on 1 May. Three days later, as the Japanese intensified the suicide attacks in a costly but futile campaign to hold Okinawa, the tug undertook salvage and firefighting duties. For two and a half months, as the savage attacks continued, Lipan salvaged and rescued damaged Navy ships off the beaches of Okinawa. Under attack by kamikaze aircraft The ship's closest brush with disaster came late afternoon on 21 June. While she was towing the already salvaged to Ie Shima escorted by , two suicide aircraft attacked the convoy. One immediately crashed and sank LSM-59. The second barely missed Lipan and crashed into Barry which sank the next day. The tug made Ie Shima and returned to Okinawa the 25th. End-of-war operations With Okinawa nearly secure, the ship departed for overhaul at Leyte on 18 July and arrived on 1 August. Overhaul completed after V-J Day, she departed for a supposedly peaceful run to Okinawa, on 23 September, with two boats in tow. Damaged in a typhoon While Lipan was en route on 30 September a typhoon with seas and winds over battered the tug with 55° rolls, snapping the tow, and starting a fire which destroyed the propulsion panel and the lower motor room. After riding out the storm, she made Subic Bay on 7 October. Following extensive repairs, Lipan sailed for San Francisco on 3 December and arrived on Christmas Day. Post-war activity During the postwar years, Lipan towed gasoline barges, landing craft, disabled submarines, floating drydocks, and target sleds in operations off the U.S. West Coast and in the western Pacific. Korean War operations With the outbreak of the Korean war, Lipan departed Long Beach, California, for the Orient on 20 June 1950. The tug arrived Yokosuka, Japan, on 15 July and shoved off that afternoon to deliver mail and medical supplies to Task force TF 90 in Korean waters. She called at Hoko Ko, Korea (18–24 July) and returned for harbor services at Yokosuka until 5 September. She then steamed with TF 90 for Inchon Harbor for the brilliant flanking amphibious assault. As the landing forces swept ashore and caught the North Koreans completely by surprise, the tug cast off her pontoon tows, and began various towing and salvage assignments. A month later she was relieved at Inchon