The ships was launched on 9 January and reallocated to the United States Navy on 25 January Sponsored by Mrs. Angeline M. Bebas, Ens. Bebas's mother, in a special christening ceremony just before commissioning, she was commissioned at Boston, Massachusetts on 15 May , Lieutenant Commander George B.
Gilbertson, USNR, in command. After arriving off Bermuda on 17 June for shakedown, the destroyer escort steamed back to the New York Navy Yard for repairs between 24 and 29 June. After returning to Bermudan waters to resume her interrupted shakedown training, Bebas completed that evolution during July and then spent the next few weeks in coastal escort and patrol operations out of Casco Bay in Maine , Boston, New York , and Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon departing Hampton Roads on 24 August in company with three of her sister ships, Bebas sailed for the Pacific. The warship operated out of that port during October and November, conducting patrol and escort missions to Noumea , New Caledonia , and to Guadalcanal in the Solomons. Highlighting this service was her attempt to salvage the Liberty ship John H.
Couch that had been set ablaze by a Japanese aerial torpedo during a raid on the night of 11 October. Bebas , patrolling an antisubmarine sector off Lunga and Koli Points, Guadalcanal, went to general quarters at to investigate a "fire explosion at sea.
Going alongside at , Bebas sent over her fire and rescue party to fight gasoline fires raging in John H. Couch's holds two and three, but the flames had gained the upper hand. After recovering her men, the warship backed away and shelled the merchantman's number two hold, in an attempt to stop the fire or to sink the ship. Bebas was subsequently assigned "killer operations and local escort" duty under the auspices of the Commanding General, Fiji Island garrison, and carried out those tasks through January She then resumed convoy escort and patrol work in the Solomons, New Hebrides , and New Caledonia areas.
