He married Miss Gertrude Boucher on June 27, 1917, attending his wedding with his head bandaged from a car accident in that morning while driving in a storm.

Naval Forces, Europe, to cruise in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, North, and Baltic Seas until 25 November, when she arrived at Constantinople.

With her home port changed to San Diego, California 9 November Childs served as flagship of Destroyer Division 8 Rotating Reserve, Scouting Force, 5 January-15 June when she was in full commission again.

Reclassified AVP-14, she saw her first service in her new role during the annual fleet problem of 1939, operating between the Florida coast and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and after final preparations at Philadelphia, sailed for her new base at Pearl Harbor, arriving 29 June.

The next day she left Hawaii for Cavite, Philippines, arriving 1 November to begin her service to air patrol squadrons.

On leaving Kendari harbour on 24 January 1942 she evaded the invading Japanese fleet in a rain squall and survived an air attack.

During this time, her planes scouted and bombed Japanese positions and shipping, mined the waters off Balikpapan, Borneo, and performed air-sea rescue missions.