Departing Seattle, Washington on 24 March, Kern arrived San Pedro, California on 28 March for shakedown. On 12 April, she joined a convoy out of Los Angeles, California, and reached Pearl Harbor on the 22nd. Loaded with aviation gas and diesel oil, she steamed to Midway Island from 8–12 June. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 18 June, and from 27 June-11 July she made a similar run to Canton and Palmyra Islands.
