She was laid down on 11 July 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Shipbuilding Division, San Francisco, California and launched on 26 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Doana Putnam Wheeler.

[2] Pausing briefly at Eniwetok, Saipan, and Tinian, the destroyer steamed from Guam 17 February in convoy en route to Iwo Jima.

[2] Putnam inched in dangerously close to attack shore installations in support of the invading Marines and illuminated Japanese troop concentrations at night with star shells.

On 23 February, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and a high-ranking Navy-Marine Corps party, after observing the initial phases of the landing, embarked in Putnam for transportation to Guam and a conference with Fleet Admiral Chester W.

She stood out of San Pedro Bay, Philippines 27 March and escorted a transport group to Okinawa; arriving Easter Sunday, the destroyer immediately took up anti-aircraft screening duties.

After escorting a convoy to Ulithi, Putnam returned to Okinawa and was assigned a gunfire support station southwest of the island 16 April.

[2] With the "cease hostilities" order of 15 August, the occupation of the Japanese home islands became the primary mission, and through the first week of September Putnam served as a guide and rescue destroyer for Tokyo-bound transport planes.

She left her station, some 100 miles north of Okinawa, 13 September to serve in the escort for the battleship New Jersey as she steamed for Wakayama, on the central island of Honshū.

[2] Putnam was one of three destroyers assigned 19–25 April 1948 to the United Nations mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, to attempt to maintain peace between Arab and Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Putnam, in late 1954, had a prominent role in the movie The Bridges at Toko-Ri filmed on the West Coast, as the destroyer steaming alongside the USS Oriskany, receiving via transfer lines disciplinary-transferred helicopter pilot Mickey Rooney and aircrewman Earl Holliman.

[2] After a short repair availability in Baltimore in mid-1970, USS Putnam was reassigned to New Orleans, Louisiana where she finished out her days performing the duties of a Reserve Trainer.