Following trials in Long Island Sound and shakedown training in Chesapeake Bay, the new attack cargo ship got underway from Norfolk on 2 February; transited the Panama Canal on the 8th; and reached Pearl Harbor on Washington's Birthday.

Although Venango sighted no Japanese planes, enemy raiders hit numerous nearby land targets as the cargo ship lay at anchor off Okinawa.

On 1 May, she shifted from the anchorage to a dock in Tanapag harbor to load equipment and cargo of the 21st Naval Construction Battalion for transportation to Okinawa.

On 3 June, a Japanese bomber splashed in the transport area; and, the next day, Venango made an emergency sortie with a six-ship merchant convoy to ride out an approaching typhoon.

There, she loaded miscellaneous cargo, including beer, lumber, cement, and tar, before getting underway on the 13th and steaming independently for the Western Carolines.

The attack cargo ship again departed Oahu on the 23rd, proceeded independently via Ulithi, and arrived at Hydrographer Bank in the Palaus on 6 August.

She entered Leyte Gulf on the morning of 9 August, unloaded cargo, and was anchored in Guiuan Roadstead off Samar on the 15th, when Japan capitulated.

Underway on the 3rd, she anchored in Manila Bay on the 5th; then, two days later, joined the sortie of Transport Squadron (TransRon) 24, bound for Yokohama.

In November, she carried elements of the 52nd Chinese Army from Haiphong to Qinhuangdao, China; then, on the 20th, she departed the Gulf of Bohai off Taku and set her course for the west coast of the United States.

Early on the morning of 6 December, she entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca and, in mid-afternoon, moored at the Naval Station, Seattle, and discharged her passengers.

In March 1952 she was transferred to Isbrandtsen Steamship Company and for more than 10 years operated out of New York under the name SS Flying Eagle.