Pickaway was laid down 1 September 1944, under Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCV hull 570, by Permanente Metals Corporation, Yard No.

2, Richmond, California; launched on 5 November 1944; sponsored by Mrs. William D. Schoning; converted into an APA; acquired by the Navy and commissioned on 12 December 1944.

[3] After shakedown and amphibious exercises at Coronado Beach, California, Pickaway embarked some 1,500 US Army troops at Seattle, Washington, departed on 9 February, arrived Pearl Harbor on 16 February, disembarked the troops and headed for Iwo Jima to evacuate Marine forces who were finishing off the remaining Japanese forces on the island.

[3] In the summer of 1950, a month after the North Korean forces marched against South Korea, Pickaway began shuttling US Army troops from Japan to Pusan to stem the tide of battle.

[3] After returning from the Far East in August 1963, Pickaway entered the Willamette Iron and Steel Works shipyard at Richmond, California, for Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM).

Soon after arriving in Yokosuka, she was ordered to proceed at once to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, to embark a Marine Battalion for transport to Vietnam to help build up American forces after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

On 7 July 1965, together with other elements of Amphibious Squadron 3, Pickaway landed the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Marine Regiment over the beaches of Da Nang, South Vietnam.