Reassigned to the newly formed United States Pacific Fleet, she departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 19 July 1919 and arrived at San Diego, California, on 7 August 1919.

[1][note 1] After arriving at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 11 September 1941, Lamberton resumed target towing and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) screening operations in the Hawaiian Islands.

Lamberton was escorting the heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis (CA-36) to Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, bringing the United States into World War II.

Lamberton continued patrol operations off Attu until late June 1943, when she departed for Kuluk Bay on Adak Island.

For the rest of World War II, she performed target-towing operations off the U.S. West Coast and from Pearl Harbor.

Lamberton was decommissioned at Bremerton, Washington, on 13 December 1946 and was sold on 9 May 1947 to National Metal and Steel Corporation at Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California, for scrapping.