After attaining the rates of boatswain, boatswain's mate, and then a reduction to quartermaster, Wiley took part in the daring raid led by Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr., in the ketch USS Intrepid at Tripoli harbor on 16 February 1804, destroying the frigate USS Philadelphia which had been captured by the Tripolitean pirates.

The destroyer conducted shakedown out of San Diego, Calif., through the end of April 1945; underwent post-shakedown availability at Puget Sound; and then sailed for the Hawaiian Islands, departing Port Angeles on 19 May and arriving at Pearl Harbor on the 26th.

Arriving at Leyte on 13 July and in Subic Bay on the 15th, Wiley operated out of the Philippines on training exercises through the first week of August.

Detached from this duty with the cruisers, Wiley joined a fast carrier task force on 12 October for operations in the Gulf of Bohai.

She was sold to the National Metal and Steel Corporation, Terminal Island, Los Angeles, California, on 2 April 1970 and subsequently scrapped.