Active for 50 years, Taney saw action in both theaters of combat in World War II, serving as a command ship at the Battle of Okinawa, and as a fleet escort in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

[5] The Taney had arrived in the Pacific at a time when the United States, and Pan-American Airways in particular, was expanding its commercial air travel capabilities.

In early March 1938, the Coast Guard cutter loaded supplies and embarked colonists who would establish the claim of the United States upon the two islands that seemed—at least to the uninitiated—to be mere hunks of coral, rock, and scrub in the Central Pacific.

[5] The Coast Guard's task over the ensuing years leading up to the outbreak of war in the Pacific was to supply these isolated way-stations along the transpacific air routes and to relieve the colonists at stated intervals.

Meanwhile, tension continued to rise in the Far East as Japan cast covetous glances at the American, British, Dutch, and French colonial possessions and marched deeper into embattled China.

She received her last major pre-war refit at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, in the spring of the following year, 1941.

On 25 July 1941, the Coast Guard cutter was transferred to the Navy and reported for duty with the local defense forces of the 14th Naval District, maintaining her base at Honolulu.

The ship began firing newly installed three inch guns at Japanese planes passing high overhead.

After sending a working party ashore to unload supplies, Taney screened Barbara Olson offshore until 7 February 1942, when both ships got under way to evacuate the American colony on Enderbury Island.

Some 35 minutes after sunset on 20 April 1944, however, the convoy was spotted and tracked by the Germans, who launched a three-pronged attack with Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 medium bombers.

Hamilton, which had been carrying both a load of ammunition and hundreds of Army Air Force personnel, blew up in an explosion that killed all 504 men on board.

During this metamorphosis, Taney — classified as WAGC-37 — was fitted with accommodations for an embarked flag officer and his staff, as well as with increased communications and radar facilities.

She conducted shakedown and training in her new configuration before departing the east coast and sailing, via the Panama Canal and San Diego, to Hawaii.

Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 22 February 1945, she soon embarked Rear Admiral Calvin H. Cobb and later underwent various minor repairs.

Joining Task Group 51.8 (TG 51.8), the amphibious command ship proceeded to Okinawa and arrived off the Hagushi beaches amidst air raid alerts on 11 April.

During one raid, her antiaircraft gunners achieved at least three hits on a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber which crossed the ship's bow 1,200 yards (1,100 m) away, and later during her first day at Okinawa experienced four more "red alerts".

On 25 June 1945, at 01:20, a float seaplane passed near Taney, provoking return fire from the command ship and batteries ashore which combined to splash the intruder.

On 25 August 1945, TG 95.5 was dissolved, and Rear Admiral Cobb, who had been embarked during the Okinawa campaign, hauled down his flag and departed.

Taney soon proceeded to Japan, where she took part in the occupation of Wakayama, anchoring off the port city on 11 September 1945 and sending a working party ashore the next day.

Moving on for the east coast, Taney transited the Panama Canal and later arrived at her ultimate destination, Charleston, South Carolina, on 29 November 1945.

Their primary task was to report meteorological information, which was used in weather forecasts for the burgeoning trans-Pacific commercial air traffic as well as for surface vessels.

A unique honor occurred on 27 April 1960 when Taney, as the senior U.S. ship present, hosted French President Charles de Gaulle on his tour of San Francisco Bay.

She departed Alameda on 26 August and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 September, where she refueled before steaming to Honolulu, mooring at Berth 8.

There Taney served a 10-month tour of duty, providing naval gunfire support and preventing enemy infiltration along the coastal routes used by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces.

She participated in dozens of naval gunfire support missions, firing more than 3,400 five-inch (127 mm) shells at Viet Cong positions.

[5] The mid-1970s were a period of transition for the Coast Guard with the passage of the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act and the nation's shift towards increased interdiction of narcotics smugglers.

On 10 January 1980, while underway on drug enforcement patrol duty, she was diverted to a Search and Rescue mission involving a lost Cessna 441 jet with two passengers.

On 15 January 1980, she seized the M/V Ameila Isle 425 miles (684 km) east of Fort Pierce, Florida, carrying 4 tons of contraband.

Despite being the long arm of the law at sea she continued in her traditional Coast Guard humanitarian mission of search and rescue as well.

Her final bust occurred on 4 October 1985 when she seized the M/V Sea Maid I which was towing a barge that carried 160 tons of marijuana 300 miles (480 km) off Virginia.