Williamson departed New York on 3 January 1921, bound for Europe and, after proceeding via Bermuda, arrived at Brest, France, in company with Sands, on 16 February.

She remained in French and British waters - calling at Cherbourg, France; and Gravesend and Portsmouth, England - into the spring before sailing for the eastern Mediterranean on 23 May.

The destroyer operated off the eastern seaboard and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, participating in war games and routine battle practices into early 1923.

Later, Williamson participated in the search for a life boat missing from the steamer Boston and made a cruise to Guantanamo Bay in company with King, McFarland, and James K. Paulding before returning to New York on 8 December.

She cruised off the east coast of the United States and into the Caribbean, operating at intervals out of Guantanamo Bay during the annual Fleet concentrations there.

Highlights in the ship's activities during that time were plane-guarding for Lexington in Guantanamo Bay in May 1930 and an extended reserve cruise that took her to Mayport, Florida, the Dry Tortugas, Key West, and Rebecca Shoals and Havana, Cuba.

Williamson returned to the East Coast in the spring of the following year and, in July 1934, was one of the escorts for Houston while President Franklin D. Roosevelt was embarked in that heavy cruiser.

With the increase in patrol plane forces in the Navy at that time, there arose in the Fleet's air wings an urgent need for tenders to support such aircraft.

A boat derrick was added to the existing searchlight tower structure to handle a pair of 30-foot motor launches to be used for tending the planes in the water.

Painted pale gray and wearing the hull number "15" and displaying the red-centered blue and white star which indicated her aviation affiliation, Williamson departed Philadelphia on 3 January 1939, bound for Norfolk.

There she took on board men and material from Patrol Wing (PatWing) 5 and soon headed for the Florida Keys where she provided tender services to VP-15 before returning to Philadelphia on 11 March 1939 for a post-shakedown availability.

Proceeding via San Diego, the light seaplane tender made port at Seattle, Washington, and reported to Commander, PatWing 4 for temporary duty.

[1] This rare TBD was rediscovered in 1996, and in February 2011, the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola, Florida, announced plans to recover and restore the rara avis.

[2] Before the entry of the United States into the war in December 1941, Williamson spent the last of her peacetime months engaged in valuable survey work between Acapulco, Mexico, and the Aleutian Islands.

During the early wartime period, the ship performed local escort missions and delivered war materials to Army and Navy bases at Cold Bay, Seattle, Dutch Harbor, and Kodiak.

Williamson and her sister tenders also stocked emergency seaplane bases with vital necessities: buoys, gasoline, lubricating oil, ammunition, and bombs.

Williamson, in company with Casco, later set up an advanced seaplane base at Chernofski and supported the PBY squadron assigned the mission of bombing the Japanese troops on Kiska Island until Army planes could take over the task.

The shock of the collision dislodged a pair of depth charges from the plane's wing shackles, and the resultant explosion wounded 16 men and blew one man over the side into the water.

Those carriers included Core, Card, Long Island, Barnes, Nassau, Altamaha, Breton, Copahee, Casablanca, Corregidor, Anzio, Tripoli, and Natoma Bay.

Returning to San Diego late in the spring of 1943, Williamson briefly trained with submarines and then resumed escorting and plane-guarding for carriers on their shakedown cruises.

She proceeded via American Samoa to Espiritu Santo and performed escort duties between Guadalcanal and Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands, until early April, when she joined Task Unit (TU) 34.6.4 for screening operations in the New Guinea area.

Upon completion of that assignment, Williamson proceeded to Purvis Bay, Solomon Islands, where she reported to Commander, Group 3, 5th Amphibious Force (Rear Admiral Richard L. Conolly), on 7 May 1944.

Upon her arrival at Saipan on 14 June, Williamson reported for duty to Admiral Ainsworth (Commander, Bombardment and Gunfire Support Force) and commenced refueling scout planes.

During the Guam operation, Williamson had a brush with the Japanese when a shore battery near the town of Agat, on the west coast of the island, opened fire.

From the autumn of 1944 until 8 January 1945, the destroyer provided escort and plane guard services for Ranger, Saratoga, Bataan, Corregidor, and Makassar Strait.

After upkeep at Ulithi, Williamson took part in rehearsal operations at Saipan and Tinian for the impending invasion of Iwo Jima the target in the island-hopping campaign.

Reaching Okinawa on 25 March, Williamson operated as an antisubmarine screening vessel and spotting plane refueling unit with Fire Support Group 1.

After three weeks in the forward area, during which time frequent air raid alerts became the routine, Williamson departed the Ryūkyūs and returned to Guam.

After operating in that capacity through the cessation of hostilities with Japan in mid-August 1945, Williamson headed via Pearl Harbor for the West Coast and arrived at San Diego on 25 September 1945.