Commissioned 11 months after the close of World War II, Saipan trained student pilots out of Pensacola, Florida, from September 1946 to April 1947[1] when, reassigned to Norfolk, Virginia, as homeport, she departed the Gulf of Mexico; participated in exercises in the Caribbean; then proceeded to Philadelphia for overhaul.

In November, she returned to Pensacola; but, in late December, after training midshipmen, steamed back to the east coast to serve with the Operational Development Force.

In February 1948, however, her work in jet operational techniques, carrier support tactics, and electronic instrument evaluation was interrupted briefly.

Departing Norfolk on Christmas Day, she arrived off Cape Farewell on 28 December and prepared to launch the helicopters as soon as weather allowed.

On 30 October, she arrived at San Diego, whence she continued on to Pearl Harbor, Yokosuka, and duty off the coast of Korea in support of the uneasy truce agreement.

Assigned to TF 95, Saipan was primarily engaged in surveillance and reconnaissance missions along the coast and in inspection patrols of the islands just south of the 38th parallel.

In January 1954, she interrupted her patrols to provide air support for Japanese manned LSTs ferrying former Chinese POWs from Inchon to new homes on Taiwan.

In early February, she participated in amphibious exercises in the Ryukyus, then returned to Inchon to stand by in the event she was needed for an evacuation of Indian troops from Panmunjom.

On 18 April, VMA-324 pilots flew the AUs off her flight deck and landed them at Tourane (now Danang) Air Base, to support the French Aéronavale fighting at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in the latest days of the First Indochina War.

On 20 April, she delivered the helicopters to Air Force personnel in the Philippines; and, at the end of the month, she resumed operations off the coast of Korea.

Arriving as Hurricane Hazel hit the Greater Antilles, razing areas of Hispaniola, the carrier was immediately assigned to relief work.

From 13 to 20 October 1954, she delivered food and medical supplies and personnel to isolated areas of Haiti; then, after being honored by the Haitian government, she returned to Norfolk.

From 1–9 October, her helicopters evacuated survivors, flew in rescue personnel, and distributed food, water and medical supplies, primarily in the flooded Tampico area.

Departing Norfolk on 7 July 1967, the communications ship transited the Panama Canal and proceeded on to Pearl Harbor, Yokosuka, and Subic Bay, when, with Annapolis, she rotated on station off Vietnam.

There at mid-month, she conducted communications tests; and, on 18 December, she departed Hawaii in TF 130, the Manned Spacecraft Recovery Force, Pacific.

Acting as primary landing area communications relay ship, she participated in the recovery of Apollo 8 and returned to Pearl Harbor on 29 December 1968.

From there, Arlington proceeded to Midway Atoll where she provided communications support for the Nixon-Thieu conference on 8 June 1969, and, the next day, she sailed west.

The ship was stricken from the Navy List on 15 August 1975, and was sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping on 1 June 1976.