He served on the USS San Francisco from 6 December 1940 to 12 November 1942, when he was killed in action off the Solomon Islands when he refused to abandon his gun in the face of an onrushing Japanese torpedo plane.

[1] The ship was laid down by Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Texas, 24 May 1943; launched 28 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Harry J. Lowe, the namesake's mother; and commissioned 22 November 1943.

Lowe continued convoy escort service making a total of 12 Atlantic crossings until 5 March 1945 when she joined TG 22.14, an exclusively U.S. Coast Guard “hunter-killer” group, with the specific mission of finding and destroying an enemy submarine operating due east of Newfoundland.

While serving with task group TG 22.14 3 May, Lowe rescued the crew of the foundered Newfoundland schooner Marion Duffitt and her guns sank the hulk, which was a menace to navigation.

Commencing 6 July, the ship assumed duties as a training vessel at Norfolk, Virginia, departing only to participate in the Navy Day observance at Washington, D.C., 24 October.

She saw extended duty with the North American Air Defense Command as a unit of the seaward extension of the DEW line, eventually completing 67 tours as a picket vessel.

Taking station off the coast of Vietnam 15 August, she was assigned the task of preventing seaborne infiltration of enemy elements to the south of that country as a part of Operation Market Time.