 On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and on December 19 "President Coolidge" evacuated 125 critically injured naval patients from Hawaii, cared for by three hastily assigned Navy nurses and two Navy doctors from the Philippines that were already among passengers being evacuated from the war zone that had now reached Hawaii.The ship reached San Francisco on 25 December.On 12 January 1942 the first large convoy, including the large former ocean liners "President Coolidge" and , to Australia after Pearl Harbor departed the United States carrying troops, supplies, ammunition and weapons, including P-40 fighters intended for the Philippines and Java with fifty of the planes carried by "President Coolidge" and "Mariposa".