She was laid down as a Type C2-S-AJ3 ship under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1393) on 20 June 1944 at Wilmington, North Carolina, by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company; launched on 25 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. J. W. Kirkpatrick; acquired by the Navy under a loan-charter basis on 7 September 1944; converted to an attack cargo ship configuration at Baltimore, Maryland, by the Bethlehem Steel Company's Key Highway plant; and commissioned on 23 February 1945.

Following shakedown training in Chesapeake Bay, Vinton sailed via the Panama Canal zone for the Central Pacific and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 16 April.

Two days out, the attack cargo ship was called upon to perform an errand of mercy when an ailing seaman from the submarine Silversides (SS-236) was transferred via Gato (SS-212) to Vinton for an emergency appendectomy.

Departing San Francisco Bay on 24 February, bound for the east coast, Vinton steamed via the Panama Canal and arrived at New York on 15 March.

Vinton was decommissioned on 16 March 1946 for return to the War Shipping Administration the following day and laid up in the James River Group of the reserve fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia.