Hector was launched 11 November 1942 by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California and sponsored by Mrs. Schuyler F. Helm.

She remained at Pearl Harbor effecting repairs on various ships, primarily landing craft, until she departed for Eniwetok on 5 June.

Her biggest repair job of the war came to her 27 October at Ulithi as the cruiser USS Houston, torpedoed twice by Japanese submarines, was towed alongside.

Although hampered by a severe typhoon season which twice sent her out to sea for safety, Hector managed to repair Houston by the end of the year besides aiding many other smaller craft.

Hector departed Ulithi on 16 February 1945 and five days later steamed into Tarragona, Leyte Gulf, to repair ships as the battle for the Philippines raged.

After serving as a repair ship there, she sailed for her first WestPac cruise 7 May 1947, thereby settling into a peacetime schedule interrupted 3 years later by the outbreak of Korean War.

During these cruises the repair ship, operating in support and service of the United States Pacific and Asian defenses, visited such ports as Yokosuka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guam, and Eniwetok.

She returned to the West Coast in March 1967 and into mid-1967 Hector continued to maintain a high state of readiness and provide repair services at Long Beach.

1974 began with Hector in Sasebo, Japan, and after visiting Yokosuka, that deployment ended with her return to Long Beach in the middle of February.

During her deployment in 1977, Hector was called on to replenish combatant ships that had departed Pearl Harbor quickly in order to observe Soviet cruise missile triangulation operations.

Her deployment in September began with a visit to Papeete, Tahiti, and later to Subic Bay, Keelung, Taiwan; Pusan, Korea and finished the year providing FRS in Yokosuka, Japan.

(One of whom was Ensign Darlene Iskra who served aboard as Diving Officer from 1980 to 1982 who went on to become the first woman to command a naval vessel, USS Opportune, in 1990.)

In 1981, Hector began her 25th deployment, visiting Subic Bay Philippines, Yokosuka Japan; Diego Garcia; Mombasa, Kenya, Melbourne, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand, Tonga, and Western Samoa.

For the second award, a group of Hector volunteers spent several days in a leper colony doing maintenance on local homes, and other facilities, while in Madagascar.

During transit up the Willamette River to Portland, Oregon in August, Hector's aft mast was snapped off as a result of coming into contact with the Burnside Bridge.

Hector's stay in Subic Bay was extended to 11⁄2 months during January to February due to Philippine elections and civil unrest.