Schenck was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 26 March 1918, launched on 23 April 1919, sponsored by Miss Mary Janet Earle and commissioned on 30 October 1919.

Due to the increased tension in the Far East resulting from Japanese military action in Manchuria and at Shanghai, China, she remained in the Pacific Ocean with the Scouting Fleet until June 1932.

On 15 September 1941, Schenck arrived at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, for duty escorting convoys carrying vital materiel to England.

She returned to Chesapeake Bay with a convoy on 26 October 1943, and, after overhaul and training, joined a hunter-killer group built around the escort carrier Card.

After stalking radar and sound contacts for most of the night and making six attacks, Schenck heard an underwater explosion and saw an oil slick which marked the end of U-645.

Between 10 July and 29 August, she provided training services for submarines at Bermuda and then entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard where she was stripped of her armament.

Reclassified AG-82 effective 25 September 1944, she provided target services for student pilots off Quonset Point, Rhode Island, until the end of the war.