Prior to her U.S. Navy career, she had operated as the merchant ship SS Aberdeen Victory during the latter stages of World War II.

Aberdeen Victory entered mercantile service as a cargo ship under contract with the Waterman Steamship Company, under whose flag she supported World War II operations against Japan and took part in the Okinawa campaign during May 1945.

Assigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet Service Force, Altair was initially based at Norfolk, Virginia, and visited Annapolis, Maryland, from 29 to 31 March 1952 and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 26 May to 2 June 1952 during the course of her shakedown.

Soon thereafter, she commenced her first deployment to the Mediterranean Sea to support the United States Sixth Fleet, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to arrive at Gibraltar on 29 June 1952.

She was decommissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, on 5 January 1953 and taken to Baltimore, where she underwent conversion at the Maryland Drydock Company to prepare her for her new role as a stores issue ship.

A little over two months later, on 24 May, she departed for her second Mediterranean deployment with the Sixth Fleet, and reached the Hyères Islands, off the southeast coast of France, on 10 June 1954 for a week's stay.

A few weeks later, Altair provided emergency medical assistance to a critically ill Greek national on Koso Island in the southern Aegean Sea; her helicopter flew the patient to Athens for further treatment.

Altair returned to the United States in October 1962 for overhaul but was abruptly ordered to the Caribbean Sea to replenish American warships enforcing the quarantine of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In June 1965, Altair's home port was changed to Norfolk, and she operated from that base until reporting to the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, on 31 December 1968.