Platte was built by the Bethlehem Steel Company, Baltimore, Maryland; launched 8 July 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Harold R. Stark; and commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia 1 December 1939.

After fitting out in the Philadelphia Navy Yard Platte departed Norfolk 27 March 1940, making two voyages to the oil docks of Houston, Texas, then supported the fleet operating from the Panama Canal Zone.

On 17 December, Platte put to sea with a convoy for Pearl Harbor and was underway on 11 January 1942 in company with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), flagship of Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., commander of Task Force 8.

Platte departed San Pedro on 9 April 1943 to provide logistic support for the Aleutian Islands Campaign, serving as station tanker in Kulak Bay, Adak.

After several runs between the West Coast and Pearl Harbor, Platte served with twelve other fleet oilers of Service Squadron 8 as part of a task group refueling warships involved in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign.

During the next twelve months she constantly shuttled from the oil docks of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, to support fleet operations at principal ports of Japan, Korea, and the Philippine Islands.

Fleet tactics off the coast of Southern California and upkeep in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard and Mare Island Navy Yards were followed by another cruise to the Far East.

This was the first of an endless chain of logistic support runs from Sasebo to the coast of Korea where she also gave vital fuel and aviation gasoline to the fast attack carriers Boxer, Philippine Sea, and Bon Homme Richard.

Platte stood out of San Diego Harbor 17 March 1954 and touched at Yokosuka on her way to Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands, thence to Formosa and Hong Kong before arrival at Sasebo.

A unit of Service Squadron 3 on each of these tours in the Far East, her operations in support of the 7th Fleet carried her to every principal port of Japan, the Philippines, Okinawa, Formosa and Korea.