She was named for Lieutenant Commander Thomas Olin Oberrender Jr., the engineering officer of the light cruiser USS Juneau, who was killed when that ship was torpedoed and sunk during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.

Returned to service in December, Oberrender served on anti-submarine patrol during the Battle of Okinawa, during which she was irreparably damaged by a kamikaze attack in early May 1945.

[3] The ship was propelled by two General Electric geared steam turbines powered by two "D" Express boilers, creating 12,000 shaft horsepower (8,900 kW) for a designed maximum speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph).

[3] Oberrender mounted a main battery of two single turret-mounted 5-inch (127 mm) /38 caliber guns, one forward and one aft of the superstructure, to protect against surface and aerial threats, directed by the Mark 51 Gunnery Fire-Control System.

Equipped with three 21-inch (533 mm) centerline torpedo tubes, the ship also carried two depth charge racks, eight K-gun depth-charge throwers and one Hedgehog spigot mortar as anti-submarine weapons.

[9] She was ordered to Norfolk Navy Yard for further repairs in mid-July and remained there until 22 July, when she began the journey to the Panama Canal, escorting the oiler Nantahala and tanker Nemasket.

[14] Oberrender missed the Battle of Leyte Gulf due to being detached on 24 October to cover the movement of the escort carriers of Task Unit 77.4.1 to Morotai[2] to take aboard replacement aircraft.

The latter departed from Biak with its transports carrying the 41st Infantry Division two days later, and she continued screening the task group, which unloaded its troops at Mangarin Bay on Mindoro on 9 February.

After the unloading, the task group and its screen continued to San Pedro Bay, where it dissolved on 12 February, leaving Oberrender at anchor awaiting a new assignment.

Three days later, she departed for Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, as part of the screen for attack transports of Task Group 78.5; the ship arrived there on 19 February and remained anchored there until 2 March,[21] when she participated in anti-submarine training with the submarine Skipjack.

[22] Oberrender departed Ulithi on the next day, acting as part of the screen for three fleet oilers on their voyage to the Tarraguna Anchorage near San Pedro Bay, which was reached on 7 March.

Air attacks became more frequent, but she remained untouched, driving off a Zero and a D3A Val dive bomber with her AA fire in two separate actions on 2 April.

[26] Back in the Okinawa vicinity, she and fellow destroyer escort England operated as an anti-submarine hunter-killer group for the next several days, on one occasion firing her Hedgehog (weapon) at several contacts that turned out to be schools of fish.

[28] While stationed with the outer anti-submarine screen to the west of the island on 9 May, Oberrender went to general quarters after receiving a report of an approaching kamikaze attack at 18:40.

The explosion heavily damaged the ship and nearly broke her in half,[30] blowing the starboard hull plating outwards for a quarter of her length and pushing up the main deck.