Following shakedown in the San Diego area, William C. Cole underwent post-shakedown availability at her builder's yard before departing the west coast on 19 July, bound for the Hawaiian Islands.

William C. Cole departed Oahu on 1 August in company with Snyder (DE-745), as part of the screen for the oilers Neches (AO-47) and Atascosa (AO-66); the seaplane tender Kenneth Whiting (AV-14); the escort carriers Bougainville (CVE-100) and Admiralty Islands (CVE-99); the refrigeration ship Aldebaran (AF-10); and the merchant freighter SS Cape Pillar.

After a five-day availability, William C. Cole departed Pearl Harbor with the destroyer escorts Melvin R. Nawman (DE-416) and Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) in the screen for a Marshalls-bound merchant convoy.

William C. Cole operated out of Purvis Bay into February 1945, performing local escort missions between Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and New Caledonia; ships escorted included SS Sea Cat, SS "Sea Snipe", General O. H. Ernst (AP-133), Wharton (AP-7), West Virginia (BB-48), General M. M. Patrick (AP-150), Windsor (APA-55), Ormsby (APA-49), and Crescent City (APA-21).

Detached from escort duties upon her arrival off the western invasion beaches on 17 April, William C. Cole soon commenced her activities as a vessel in the screen.

She remained on screening stations in the vicinity of transport anchorages until retiring on the 26th in company with Bunch (APD-79), Mullany (DD-528), Charles Lawrence (APD-37), and Richard W. Suesens (DE-342), as escort for TransDiv 104.

The following day, in company with Chase (APD-54) and as escort for the battleship West Virginia and the heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (CA-37), William C. Cole got underway to return to Okinawa.

First, a Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar" attempted a suicide run while Cole was northeast of Ie Shima and crashed within a few feet of the destroyer escort's starboard beam.

On 30 May, William C. Cole loaded ammunition at Kerama Retto to replenish her depleted magazines before weighing anchor on the next day to sail to Saipan with a convoy of merchantmen.

The convoy reached San Pedro Bay on 10 June, and William C. Cole received repairs to the damage she had suffered during the kamikaze attack off Okinawa on 24 May.

Subsequently, sailing for Luzon in company with Vammen (DE-644), Cole fueled upon arrival at Lingayen and soon thereafter headed for Okinawa convoying LST group 104.

Following training exercises with submarines, antiaircraft firing practices, and a six-day availability, the destroyer escort patrolled off Tinian until relieved on 17 August, two days after Japan capitulated, bringing the long Pacific War to a close.

As well as first hand accounts of sailors aboard the USS William C. Cole during the time of her service in WWII including Signalman Raymond P. Janov.