An earlier name was kept for Herald of the Morning (AP-173), the second ship to carry it. Moore Dry Dock at Oakland launched her on 14 August 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract, with Mrs. J.R. Moore as sponsor. U.S. Lines operated her first. United Engineering at Alameda then altered her for naval service. The Navy acquired her on loan charter on 22 April 1944 and commissioned her that day, Commander H.A. Dunn in command.
A short shakedown followed. She loaded troops and supplies and sailed on 2 May for Hawaii, arriving six days later. Amphibious drills there prepared the Marianas attack. The ships left for the Marshalls on 1 June. She was in a reserve group and reached Saipan on 16 June, the day after Marines under Vice Admiral R. K. Turner had gone ashore. She unloaded supplies, sent her troops off, and retired to Eniwetok on 26 June. From 1 to 13 July she stayed there, then sailed for Pearl Harbor to load again, arriving 31 July. More troops and supplies came aboard, and on 12 August she sailed for training off Guadalcanal.
Assigned to the Palau operation, she left on 8 September and was off those islands seven days later. On 17 September her boats ran a diversion against Babelthuap and pulled the units back just before they would have hit the beach. A full landing had gone onto Angaur. The next day she put her troops and cargo ashore there. On 21 September she sailed for Ulithi, landed the rest of her men and cargo, and reached Seeadler Harbor at Manus on 28 September.
Preparations then turned to the return to the Philippines and the Leyte invasion. With the Northern Attack Force she left Manus on 12 October and, on 20 October, put troops and cargo ashore during the opening phase of the assault. She went back to Guam by way of the Palaus for more troops. As Japan sortied against the Philippine landing in the action that became the Battle of Leyte Gulf, she took reinforcements aboard and shifted to Manus for still more troops on 16 November. Two days later she sailed, and on 23 November she landed those men north of Dulag. Enemy aircraft attacked during that period. She took no serious harm. That November landing was a reinforcement, not the 20 October assault. She left on 24 November for New Guinea and arrived on 30 November.
A month of training near Sansapor prepared the Lingayen Gulf strike. She sailed on 30 December. Heavy air attacks hit the convoys, but she entered the gulf on 9 January 1945 for the initial invasion, rode out more air attacks, got her units ashore, and retired to an anchorage. On 12 January she sailed for Leyte Gulf, loaded troops there on 14 January and at Biak on 22 January, and on 9 February unloaded those reinforcements at Mindoro. That Mindoro call was a later reinforcement, not the island's assault. She was back at Leyte on 12 February and three days later sailed for Ulithi and Iwo Jima. From 9 to 27 March she took aboard men who had already fought on Iwo Jima. She did not put assault troops on that beach. On 27 March she left, carried those men to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco, and passed the Golden Gate on 23 April.
Repairs and a load of replacements sent her out on 29 June for Manila by way of Eniwetok and Ulithi. Manila was the arrival on 29 July. The troops went off, and she started the long trip home. While she was at sea with returnees, Japan's surrender was announced. San Francisco received her on 11 September. Magic Carpet, the lift of servicemen home, was her next job. Four more voyages ran to Pacific islands. She was released to deactivate on 21 June 1946, returned to Olympia, Washington, in July, and decommissioned on 9 August. The Maritime Commission took her back. Waterman Lines later sailed her as Citrus Packer until 1958, when Gulf-South American Lines bought her and renamed her Gulf Trader. Five battle stars were credited for the war.