Serving with the 5th and 3rd Fleets she took part in the Leyte operation (5 November – 16 December 1944); Luzon-Formosa-China coast-Nansei Shoto strikes (3–22 January 1945); invasion of Iwo Jima and the supporting 5th Fleet raids (15 February – 5 March), and Okinawa operation (17 March – 27 April), including 21 April bombardment of Minami Daito Shima.

She retired to Ulithi, Caroline Islands, where she lay 30 April – 10 May before joining the 5th Fleet for the projected invasion of Kyushu, Japan.

Brush lay at anchor in Leyte Gulf from 13 June to 1 July 1945 and then departed for a raid on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō.

Until May 1950 Brush remained on the west coast participating in local operations, plane guard duties, and type training.

On 26 September 1950 while shelling the shore off Tanch'ŏn, Brush struck a mine, ripping her midships section and breaking her keel.

Brush received temporary repairs at Japan and returned under her own power to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, arriving on 22 December 1950.

Over the next five years, Brush conducted three Vietnam deployments (20 November 1965 – 13 May 1966; 8 April – 6 October 1967; 20 August 1968 – 4 March 1969), each marked by intensive patrol and gunnery operations in the South China Sea.