After fitting out in Boston Navy Yard, Manley sailed in company with Battleship Division Nine on 25 November 1917 to join the convoy escort and patrol forces based at Queenstown, Ireland.

She returned to the Atlantic early in 1933 for operations which continued until she sailed for the Panama Canal Zone on 10 September 1935 and joined the Special Service Squadron that patrolled the Caribbean.

On 26 October 1937 she sailed from Boston, Massachusetts with Claxton (DD-140) to serve with Squadron 40-T in protecting American interests in the Mediterranean during the Spanish Civil War.

Manley briefly visited the California coast in the spring of 1940 for marine landing force drills off Coronado Roads.

At dusk on 11 April 1942, she picked up 290 survivors from the torpedoed merchant passenger steamer SS Ulysses, and landed them at Charleston, South Carolina the following day.

Touching the Society and Fiji Islands, she reached Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides on 14 August, and loaded special cargo for Guadalcanal, invaded only one week earlier.

As she was unloading, the shore station ordered her to clear out at highest speed, since a raid by Japanese heavy units was expected momentarily.

The versatile fighting ship left Nouméa on 20 November 1942 carrying six torpedoes, towing two PT boats, and escorting SS Pomona to Espiritu Santo.

In the following months, the high-speed transport was constantly engaged in the risky business of running supplies into Guadalcanal and escorting other ships through the dangerous Solomons.

Manley arrived at Pearl Harbor on 14 December 1943 and joined the V Amphibious Corps to prepare for Operation Flintlock, the invasion of the Marshall Islands.

The two high-speed transports were ordered to land 7th Cavalry Regiment reconnaissance troops on Bennett Islands before dawn on 5 February, and Manley was designated fire support ship.

Three days later Manley got underway as part of a transport screen for Hawaii, arriving Pearl Harbor on the 15th to train Army troops for future landings.

On 10 September Manley took on board 50 tons of explosives, slated as reserves for underwater demolition team work in the proposed invasion of Yap.

En route, part of the convoy, including Manley, was diverted to Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands, and anchored there on the 27th.

With elements of the 11th Airborne Division, Manley arrived at Nasugbu Bay on 31 January and landed troops in two waves without resistance.

To block retreat by the Japanese into Bataan, Manley with TransDiv 100 and six LCI(L)'s, put some 700 assault troops ashore at Mariveles on 15 February 1945.

The following day Manley's task group closed the islands to launch the remainder of the aircraft for landing strips on that bitterly contested "last stepping stone" to Japan.

She was reclassified DD-74 on 25 June 1945 and sailed on 24 July for the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, where she was fitted with a catapult for target drones.

As she was helping train gunners to meet Kamikaze attacks, the war ended and Manley departed the Hawaiian Islands on 26 September for San Diego, then via the Panama Canal to Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she decommissioned on 19 November 1945.

Her name was struck from the Navy list on 5 December 1945; and she was sold for scrapping to the Northern Metal Company, Philadelphia, on 26 November 1946.