Luzon was laid down 8 April 1943, as liberty ship SS Samuel Bowles, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCE hull 981, by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Inc., in Baltimore, Maryland; launched 14 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. H. E. Sigman; acquired by the Navy and renamed Luzon 24 May 1943; commissioned 12 October 1943.

Assigned to Service Squadron 4, she operated at Funafuti and provided repair facilities for amphibious, patrol, and landing craft.

As a unit of Service Squadron 10, she maintained a busy repair schedule there until 1 March 1945, when she steamed to Saipan for 6 months of duty at that important harbor.

She then departed for the United States, and, after touching at Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal, she arrived at Orange, Texas, on 9 February 1946.

She arrived at Sasebo, Kyūshū on 23 January 1951, and during the remainder of the year, she provided valuable repair services for ships of the US 7th Fleet.

Except for a run to Pusan, South Korea, and back in mid-July, she provided repair facilities at Sasebo until sailing to Yokosuka on 15 January 1954.

Although based at Sasebo, she steamed to Okinawa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and to various Japanese ports while carrying out her assigned tasks.