[3] Under the pressure of urgent World War I needs for destroyers, her construction was pushed rapidly from keel laying on 15 May 1918 to launching on 1 June and commissioning on 24 July 1918.

Ward transferred to the Atlantic late in the year and helped support the trans-Atlantic flight of the Curtiss NC flying boats in May 1919.

The death of its two-man crew was the first American-caused casualties in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, occurring a few hours before Japanese carrier aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor.

[citation needed] Ward fired several rounds from its main guns, hitting the conning tower of the submarine, and also dropped several depth charges during the attack.

[5] The starboard side of the Japanese submarine's conning tower has one shell hole, evidence of damage from Ward's number-three gun.

Ward's depth charges did no apparent structural damage to the 46-long-ton (47 t), 78 ft (24 m) craft, which sank due to water flooding in from the shell hole.

She helped fight off a heavy Japanese air attack off Tulagi on 7 April 1943, and spent most of the rest of that year on escort and transport service.

During the first nine months of 1944, Ward continued her escort and patrol work and also took part in several Southwest Pacific amphibious landings, among them the assaults on Saidor, Nissan Island, Emirau, Aitape, Biak, Cape Sansapor, and Morotai.