Boatswain's Mate First Class Solar was on board the Nevada on the morning of 7 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Solar completed post-commissioning trials in the Delaware River and shakedown training in the Bermuda area; then returned to Philadelphia at the beginning of April 1944.

On 25 April, Solar put to sea from New York City with Task Group 27.1 in the screen of a Casablanca-bound convoy.

Solar was next assigned to Task Force 64, and spent the next six months escorting three convoys from the United States to the Mediterranean and back.

Her conversion to radar picket ship had been canceled and, with the declaration of V-J day in mid-August, her orders were changed again.

On 19 December, Solar was assigned to the commander, Operational Development Force, for anti-aircraft and fighter director practice.

("The United Press quoted witnesses as saying a shell being passed by Seaman Joseph Stuckinski of Baltimore from the ship to a truck on the pier exploded in his arms and set off the blasts.

")[2] He was able to escape with relatively minor injuries, but three ensuing explosions blasted the ship near her number 2 upper handling rooms.

Her number 2 gun was demolished and the bridge, main battery director, and mast were all blown aft and to starboard.

Solar was then stripped of all usable equipment, towed 100 nmi (200 km) to sea, and sunk on 9 June 1946, in 700 fathoms (1,300 m) of water.