For the rest of June and July 1944, USS New Jersey escorted carriers supporting the troops fighting on Saipan, invading Tinian, and liberating Guam, which Imperial Japan had seized from America in 1941. The New Jersey rescued fliers downed at sea using its Kingfisher float planes, and then screened carriers again striking the Palaus. After over two months at sea, the New Jersey finally headed to Eniwetok and then to Pearl Harbor, arriving August 9, 1944.