 Following shakedown out of Little Creek, Virginia "LST-988" departed the Norfolk area on 2 June 1944 in a convoy bound for Bizerte, Tunisia.Arriving on the 22nd, she discharged her Seabee passengers and equipment and took on troops and rolling stock to be transported to Italy.She anchored at Naples on 2 July and for the next month shuttled troops and equipment along the Italian coast, to Sicily and to Corsica.