She was laid down on 23 January 1919 at San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 28 May 1919; sponsored by Mrs. George Kirkland Smith, the granddaughter of William Maxwell Wood; reclassified DD-317 on 17 July 1920; and commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, on 28 January 1921.

Following commissioning, Wood underwent her trials before mooring at the Santa Fe docks, San Diego, California, where she remained as part of the "rotating reserve" into the summer of 1921.

The new destroyer then spent the ensuing months, into the late spring of 1922, operating off the coast of southern California on drills and exercises, off the port of San Pedro, and the Coronado Islands.

At the end of that period of activity in June 1922, Wood shifted northward and reached Seattle, Washington, on 1 July 1922.

A highlight of Wood's service in the autumn of 1925 was the cruise with the fleet to Australia as part of Destroyer Division 34.