USS Cardinal (MSC(O)-4/AMS-4/YMS-179) was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II.

Cardinal was laid down as YMS-179 on 27 October 1942 by Henry C. Grebe and Co., Chicago, Illinois; launched 8 May 1943; completed, 31 July 1943; and commissioned USS YMS-179 on 28 August 1943 at New Orleans, Louisiana.

During the next six months, she was assigned as a convoy escort from Key West making countless voyages along the Gulf Coast with merchant ships and naval auxiliaries.

A unit of Mine Division 32, Squadron 11, Eighth Amphibious Force of the U.S. 6th Fleet, she arrived in the Golfe de Frejus, off St. Raphael, France 25 August 1944.

She was immediately engaged in sweeping minefields near the Harbor of Nice, when, on 14 September 1944, she opened fire to help silence a troublesome enemy battery which had been harassing operations.

For the next seven months she swept mines in the vicinity of Palermo and the port of Cagliari, Sardinia, and conducted brief rests at Naples, Leghorn, and Genoa.

Her time was split between training in local waters, periodic tours of service in the Chesapeake Bay as a school ship for students of the Naval Mine Warfare School of Yorktown, Virginia; refresher training cruises which included visits to the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic; and upkeep periods in the Norfolk Navy Yard.