After basic training, he was assigned to a unit scheduled to take part in the Guadalcanal campaign, the first American amphibious operation of World War II.

In the bitter fighting on 23 October 1942 in the Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal during the Battle for Henderson Field, Private First Class Robinson risked his life to repair damaged communications lines vital to the survival of his unit.

The ship was reclassified as a Charles Lawrence-class high-speed transport and redesignated APD-72 on 27 June 1944, and was towed to Orange, Texas, for fitting out by the Consolidated Steel Corporation there.

Arriving at Ulithi Atoll on 21 May 1945, she took up duty as an escort vessel for the massive supply convoys between staging bases and the forward areas.

Jack C. Robinson was decommissioned at Green Cove Springs on 13 December 1946 and placed in the Florida Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet on the St. Johns River there.