 Sailing to the south of Guadalcanal on 1 November, she refueled Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's fast carriers, and , on 3 to 4 November in preparation for a surprise air strike against Japanese shipping at Rabaul on the 5th.From 21 February to 2 March 1944 she replenished destroyers to the east of New Ireland as they battered the Bismarck Barrier with bombardments on Kavieng and Rabaul.Captain Arleigh Burke, Commander of the "Little Beavers" (DesRon 23) and later Chief of Naval Operations, commended "Kankakee" as the "most efficient tanker we have met."