[1] The destroyer was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 20 December 1944, launched on 26 May 1945 by Mrs. Percy Bass, mother of Lt. Cmdr.

She made the rounds between Shanghai, Tsingtao, and Hong Kong, and conducted maneuvers with Task Forces (TF) 58 and 77.

In December, the destroyer began the voyage home, stopping at Guam and at Pearl Harbor before arriving back in San Diego in February 1947.

For the next year, Brinkley Bass participated in type training and independent ship's exercises along the coast of southern California.

During that cruise, she visited Tsingtao, China; as well as the Japanese port cities of Fukuoka, Osaka, Sasebo, Yokohama, and Yokosuka.

Brinkley Bass reentered San Diego in March, and April saw her begin another regular overhaul, that time at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

During that deployment, she alternated port visits in Japan, China, Okinawa, and the Philippines with training evolutions and patrols in Tsushima Strait.

Scheduled for regular overhaul, she entered the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 16 August and remained there until 8 October.

After about a month of normal operations, the destroyer departed San Diego on 6 November, bound for her first tour of duty in the Korean combat zone.

She made the normal stops, Pearl Harbor, Midway Island, and Sasebo, Japan before joining Task Force 77 off the Korean coast on 25 November.

Such remained her mission until late in April 1951 when she and her division mates were detached to escort a convoy of transports to Japanese ports.

On 20 May, a North Korean shore battery succeeded in wounding 10 Brinkley Bass crewmembers, one of them fatally, with shell fragments from a near-miss to starboard.

The last week of that tour saw her assisting the Republic of Korea frigate ROKS Apnok 62 which had nearly been severed in half in a collision.

On 22 June, her division, DesDiv 52, was relieved at Wonsan and shaped a course for Okinawa whence she conducted two weeks of antisubmarine warfare training.

That was followed by 27 months of duty along the California coast that also included a four-month regular overhaul at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard between April and August 1964.

Though Brinkley Bass spent another year in peaceful operations along the west coast, that incident meant that her remaining Far East deployments would be of a combat nature.

On 28 September 1965, the destroyer departed Long Beach in a task group built around the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga.

The task group spent about two weeks engaged in exercises in the Hawaii operating area before continuing its voyage west.

Three days later, she was on her way to Vietnamese waters where she screened USS Independence (CVA-62) and served as her plane guard during air strikes on North Vietnam.

After a stop at Da Nang where the damage was inspected, the destroyer moved on to Subic Bay where she received a false bow.

Following gunfire support training at the Tabones range early in February, she shaped a course for the south SAR station in company with USS Richmond K. Turner.

She then steamed in company with USS Bon Homme Richard on Yankee Station before putting into Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on 19 March.

She joined USS Bigelow in supporting the closing phase of Operation "Beacon Hill," a combination vertical and horizontal amphibious assault on Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces threatening the United States Marine Corps Firebase Gio Linh.

That operation ended on 1 April; and, the next day, Brinkley Bass relieved USS McCaffery along the shores of the II Corps zone.

Ten days later, the warship returned to gunfire support missions in the northern portion of the II Corps zone.

Those operations continued until 18 July when she departed Long Beach for the Far East in company with USS Decatur, Samuel N. Moore, and Harry E. Hubbard.

The warships arrived in Pearl Harbor on 24 July and then put to sea again on the 25th to escort Hancock during the carrier's operational readiness inspection.

In addition, she served one tour of duty on the Taiwan Strait patrol and conducted surveillance on Soviet trawlers snooping the American warships.

For almost four months, the warship served the familiar line periods off the coast of Vietnam screening carriers and providing gunfire support for the ground troops.

She made stops at the Australian ports of Darwin, Townsville, Sydney, and Napier before shaping a course for Long Beach on 11 October.