Originally built in 1928 as SS Dixie at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Kearny, New Jersey, she was formally acquired by the United States Navy on 3 March 1941 from the Southern Pacific Steamship lines (Morgan Line) and converted for naval service at the Bethlehem Steel Key Highway Plant in Baltimore, Maryland.

Her protracted sojourn at Norfolk came to an end on 4 July 1944 when the repair ship got underway for the New England coast.

In early January, 1945 the destroyer tender left the east coast, bound for the Pacific.

After a four-day layover for a special construction project, the tender resumed her original course and arrived at Leyte on 26 June.

After a pause en route at Pearl Harbor, the ship reached San Diego on 3 June.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.