Stoddard was laid down at Seattle, Washington, by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp. on 10 March 1943; launched on 19 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Mildred Gould Holcomb; and commissioned on 15 April 1944.

Following her shakedown training out of San Diego and post-shakedown availability at Seattle, Stoddard screened a convoy to Pearl Harbor, departing the west coast on 16 July and reaching Hawaii on the 29th.

Heavy winds and seas slowed TF 92's retirement speed to nine knots, but the bad weather also prevented pursuit by enemy aircraft.

Two days later, under the cover of snow squalls but with calm seas, the task force bombarded the Suribachi Wan area of Paramushiro, severely damaging canning installations and airfields.

For almost a month, her crew enjoyed recreation in the islands and conducted operational training in preparation for assignment to Okinawa and the Fast Carrier Task Force.

Along the way, Ticonderoga's air group got in a little live-ammunition practice on 17 May, when they struck the Japanese forces isolated on Taroa and the other islets of Maleolap Atoll.

Though the Okinawa campaign was rapidly nearing its conclusion, the proximity of airfields in Japan and on Formosa allowed enemy air power to continue to harass the ships around the island.

After the cessation of hostilities on 15 August, she continued to cruise the waters near Japan with TF 38 to cover the occupation forces.

She cleared Japanese waters from 21 September until 7 October, while she underwent availability at Eniwetok, then returned for training exercises until November.

On 4 June 1965, Stoddard departed from San Diego to begin her annual tour of duty in Asian waters; but this deployment was different.

In doing so the ships effectively destroyed the VC 7th Battalion engaging Marines on the Ca De River Bridge and the northern sector of Da Nang.

[1][2] After maintenance in Japan and a rest and relaxation period in Hong Kong, Stoddard joined USS Independence on Yankee Station to serve as plane-guard for the pilots flying missions inland and as a screening unit for the carrier herself.

Stoddard spent the next twelve months operating with the 1st Fleet in the waters off the west coast of the United States.

Her primary mission was to maintain operational readiness through training, which ran the gamut from antisubmarine warfare exercises to bombardment drills.

The second tour lasted from 2 December 1966 to 4 January 1967 and consisted entirely of plane guard duty with USS Kitty Hawk in the Gulf of Tonkin.

On 16 February 1967, she returned to Subic Bay for maintenance and, after four days, got underway for a rest and relaxation period at Hong Kong.

Not only did the operation become more important to the war effort, but a subtle shift in target emphasis required an ever-increasing amount of shore bombardment and counter-battery fire.

Stoddard destroyed radar installations and ammunition dumps, pounded staging areas, and silenced shore batteries.

The latter, however, scored some minor success on 17 March, when Stoddard assisted in the rescue of a downed American near the mouth of the Song Giap River.

Stoddard was a plane guard for the carrier USS America in the Gulf of Tonkin and provided gunfire support for troops ashore in the vicinity of Huế, South Vietnam.

On 30 June 1976, Stoddard was transferred from the inactive ship facility, Mare Island, California, to the Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu.

During the testing, Stoddard was subjected to attack by no less than forty-three targets, from subsonic BQM drones to supersonic MQM-8 Vandal missiles.

Seal Team One installed charges, which sank her 64 nautical miles (119 km; 74 mi) NNW of the island of Kauai, Hawaii, in the Barking Sands Missile Range on 22 July 1997.