 After shakedown in the vicinity of Bermuda and training off the Rhode Island coast, "Sturtevant" began 21 months of convoy escort duty in the Atlantic.On 24 September, she got underway to screen her first convoy to Casablanca and Gibraltar.The commissioning executive officer, LCDR James M. Mertz, USNR, assumed command in November 1943 and remained in command through the end of the war.