On 30 June 1944, Shelikof departed San Pedro for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On 9 July 1944, she was underway from Pearl Harbor with a convoy bound for Eniwetok. While at Eniwetok from 18 July to 1 August, Shelikof had her aviation machine shop and carpenter shop converted into combination aircraft and aircraft radar maintenance facilities.
Shelikofs next port of call was Tanapag Harbor, a former Japanese seaplane base on Saipan. Her personnel went ashore daily to clear debris from the hangars and the surrounding area in order to make the base operable, thereby relieving the congestion at aircraft tenders. When Shelikof departed on 3 December 1944, Naval Air Base Saipan, was being used as a supply depot and a major overhaul facility. Shelikof spent the next three months shuttling spare parts and supplies between Guam, Ulithi Atoll, and Saipan.
Shelikof sailed from Saipan with Task Unit 51.20 on 23 March 1945 for the invasion of the Ryukyu Islands. The seaplane group moved into the anchorage at Kerama Retto on 28 March 1945 as United States Army units were still battling to secure those small rocky islands before the major assault on Okinawa began on 1 April 1945. Shelikof laid eight seaplane mooring buoys on 28 March 1945 and three of them were put into use on 29 March 1945 when the first Martin PBM-5 Mariner flying boats arrived. The anchorage was under constant Japanese air attack during April 1945, but the only casualties aboard Shelikof occurred on 28 April 1945 when friendly fire wounded two men. On 6 May 1945, Shelikof took under fire a Japanese plane which approached within 1,000 yards, 50 feet off the water, but no damage to the plane was noted. The seaplane base was shifted to Chimu Wan, Okinawa, on 15 July 1945 and Shelikof operated there until the end of hostilities with Japan on 15 August 1945, which brought World War II to a close.
Honors and awards
Shelikof earned three battle stars for her World War II service.
Shelikof was recommissioned at Philadelphia on 3 January 1952. She operated along the United States East Coast from her home port at Norfolk for the next two and a half years. Shelikof commenced inactivation in July 1954. She was placed out of commission in reserve in the Texas Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange, Texas, in December 1954.
Shelikof was converted for commercial service as the Greek passenger ship MV Kypros. She subsequently was renamed MV Myconos in 1964, MV Artemis in 1973, MV Artemis K in 1974, and MV Golden Princess in 1979. Golden Princess sank in a storm at Perama, Greece, while laid up in January 1981.
