He was killed in action on 13 November 1942 when Juneau was torpedoed and sunk by an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

After fitting out, Sutton sailed on 12 January 1945 for the Bermuda operating area and held her shakedown there until she headed for Boston, Massachusetts, on 14 February.

U-234 had left Germany with a cargo bound for Japan of a disassembled Messerschmitt Me 262 jet plane, two Japanese scientists (who both committed suicide upon hearing they would surrender and were buried at sea), and two high ranking German officers, including General der Flieger Ulrich Kessler of the Luftwaffe.

While this was enough to create a media sensation, it was decades later before the U.S. government revealed that the submarine also carried a load of uranium oxide produced by the German atomic weapons program bound for a last-ditch Japanese effort.

Sutton operated out of Mayport, Florida, until 29 August when she sailed for Charleston, South Carolina, and a yard overhaul which lasted all of September.

Sutton was loaned to the Republic of Korea on 2 February 1956 under the Grant Aid Program and served that government as ROKS Kang Won (F-72) until she was stricken on 28 December 1977 and sent to the Philippines for cannibalization of parts.