Okaloosa took her name from Okaloosa County, Florida. She served as an attack transport of the Haskell class, a Victory hull finished for the amphibious fleet. Permanente Metals built her at Richmond. The keel went down on 8 August 1944, and she went into the water on 22 October 1944. On 28 November 1944 the Navy took her over on loan charter and commissioned her that same day.
Once she was fitted out she left Seattle on 26 January 1945 carrying troops, and made Honolulu. From Pearl Harbor she prepared for the next move. On 29 March she sailed with Army passengers, calling at Eniwetok and Ulithi on the way out to the Ryukyus.
Okaloosa reached Okinawa on 26 April 1945. Over the four days that followed, her landing craft took the soldiers in. Japanese planes came at the ships through those days. Okaloosa finished the work and took neither a bomb nor a crashing aircraft.
She was back at San Francisco on 22 May 1945. That April week off the island is the fighting she was in, and a single battle star is what the Navy entered for it. The ship was still afloat when the war ended.