The ship underwent builder's trials out of Brooklyn, New York, and then began shakedown out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, in Chesapeake Bay.

She remained at Orange and Beaumont, Texas, for outfitting and readying for sea until 7 January 1952, when she departed for San Diego.

Having arrived on 14 February, the ship conducted exercises and loaded ammunition at Port Chicago, California, before sailing on 22 March for Sasebo, Japan.

She arrived at Sasebo on 3 May 1952 and, after voyage repairs, began supplying ammunition to the ships of Task Force (TF) 77 on patrol off the east coast of Korea.

On 24 June 1963, Vesuvius commenced her 13th post-World War II deployment to the western Pacific, making stops at Pearl Harbor and at Guam for repairs and arriving at Yokosuka on 4 August.

A brief trip to San Diego and participation in an exercise with other units of the 1st Fleet occupied April, and Vesuvius spent May in an upkeep status at Concord, California.

She then began operations in the South China Sea interrupted by brief returns for the onload of cargo in Subic Bay.

Vesuvius began the year 1966 by steaming on 3 January to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, to undergo repairs for six weeks.

By 26 March, the ammunition had been successfully offloaded; and, on 28 April 1966, Vesuvius proceeded to the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in San Francisco.

In December, she stopped at Pearl Harbor on her way home, where an unusual cargo was embarked — $9,700,000 was brought on board for a special currency lift back to the United States.

Following completion of overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard and underway training, Vesuvius departed for the western Pacific on 15 July 1967, bound for Subic Bay.

Except for brief periods in Hong Kong, Vesuvius came off the line in the South China Sea only long enough to fill her hold with more ammunition.

Near the end of January 1968, Vesuvius sailed to Yokosuka on her return trip to the United States, only to be recalled to the seas off Vietnam following the Pueblo Incident to support Operation Formation Star.

After stopovers in Pearl Harbor and Yokosuka, she touched at Subic Bay for a few days before starting her line period off Vietnam.

During this deployment, Vesuvius conducted seven line runs in the South China Sea and the Tonkin Gulf in support of 7th Fleet operations.

Vesuvius then resumed her assignment of providing ammunition logistics support to the 7th Fleet and Royal Australian Navy units off the coast of Vietnam.

After offloading ammunition at Concord, the ship moved to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a month of stand-down.

Vesuvius departed Concord on 29 November for refresher training off San Diego, returning to Mare Island on 4 December.

In December, she entered drydock at Subic Bay to replace her propeller, but she promptly returned to Vietnam and ended the year in the combat zone.

On 14 August 1973, Vesuvius was decommissioned and transferred to the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Mare Island for further disposition and was struck from the Navy List.