A little over two months later, the Navy signed a contract with the Tietjen and Lang Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey to convert the ship to a unique type of auxiliary vessel, a "combined lighter-than-air/heavier-than-air aviation tender."

After installation of her armament, the lighter-than-air aircraft tender departed Philadelphia on 2 March, touching at Hampton Roads, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina en route to the Florida coast.

After returning to Key West on 11 April, Wright spent the next two years off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, operating out of Hampton Roads and Newport in waters that ranged from the Virginia Capes to the Virgin Islands.

Wright ultimately departed Hampton Roads on 21 January 1925 as flagship for Captain Harry E. Yarnell, Commander, Air Squadrons, Scouting Fleet, bound for the Pacific Ocean.

When the United States Coast Guard destroyer Paulding rammed and sank the submarine S-4 on the afternoon of 17 December 1927 off Provincetown, Massachusetts, Wright immediately loaded six salvage pontoons at the Norfolk Navy Yard and set out for the scene of the disaster.

The following year, the ship's routine was broken by transporting building materials to the hurricane-devastated island of St. Croix; and, in 1929, she carried Marines to Cuba when trouble threatened in Haiti.

Wright stood out of Hampton Roads on 5 January 1932 and supported air patrol squadron tactical evolutions ranging from Cuba and Jamaica to Coco Solo, Canal Zone.

After tactical evolutions off Acapulco and at Magdalena Bay, Mexico, Wright made port at NAS North Island, San Diego, on 20 February.

From the time of her arrival at NAS North Island, on 20 February 1932 until 10 September 1939, Wright made 14 extended cruises in support of naval seaplane squadrons.

The first of those began when she departed San Diego on 1 May 1933 for an aviation transport run that included an inspection by Rear Admiral John Halligan, Jr., Commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Force, of the Fleet Air Base (FAB) at Pearl Harbor.

After returning to San Diego on 4 June, Wright operated along the West Coast, followed by a cruise to Panama and the Caribbean, between 31 August and 14 October, tending the planes from VP-2F, VP-5F, VP-10, and Utility Patrol Squadron 3.

Wright sailed again for Hawaiian waters on 5 January 1934; and – in operations that took her from Hilo Bay, Hawaii, to Midway Island and French Frigate Shoals – tended 32 seaplanes.

Steaming by way of Seattle, Washington, the tender visited Ketchikan and Juneau in early August before she tended two squadrons of seaplanes in waters near Seward and Sitka, Alaska.

Returning to San Diego from her planeguard station on 17 October, Wright spent only a short period in port and sailed again four days later, for Palmyra Island.

Reaching that point on the last day of October, Wright supported the planes photographing the island and served as "home" for the survey party sent ashore.

Her coastwise duties were interrupted between 16 January and 28 February 1936 by an aviation support cruise to Post Office Bay, Galápagos Islands; Santa Elena, Ecuador; and Balboa, Canal Zone.

[1] Wright and the seaplane tender USS Teal arrived to render assistance and succeeded in refloating Brant, which later underwent repairs at Seattle and returned to service by January 1939.

Reaching Norfolk from Puerto Rico on 14 March, the seaplane tender returned to the West Coast soon thereafter, as part of the general movement of the fleet from Atlantic to Pacific.

Back at San Diego on 16 May, Wright operated out of that port until 10 September, when she sailed for the Hawaiian Islands to become flagship for PatWing 2, based at Pearl Harbor.

Arriving there on 19 September (less than three weeks after the outbreak of war in Europe) Wright spent the next two years supporting the establishment of aviation bases on Midway, Canton, Johnston, Palmyra, and Wake Islands.

After reaching Pearl Harbor the day after the Japanese attack, Wright got underway on 19 December to transport 126 Marines of the 4th Defense Battalion, with their gear, to Midway.

For the next five and one-half months, Wright shuttled military passengers, arms, gasoline, and other equipment to Midway and other defense bases of the Hawaiian Sea Frontier.

She sailed thence to Midway, transporting a group of passengers that included 205 Marines, and from there shifted to the Fiji Islands where she disembarked the 7 officers and 254 enlisted men of FAB Unit 13 who were put ashore with their gear and logistic cargo.

Following repairs and alterations, the tender put to sea on 20 July, bound for the Hawaiian Islands, and debarked the men of Marine Fighting Squadron 223 (VMF-223) at Pearl Harbor a week later.

Upon arriving at Gavutu harbor, Florida Island, in the Solomons, on 20 April, Wright loaded aviation stores before she proceeded to Espiritu Santo for repairs that lasted through the end of May.

Reaching Humboldt Bay on 23 June, the ship tended the planes and housed the 30 officers and 54 men of VP-33 until 16 July, when she put to sea for Mios Woendi, in the Padiado Islands, Dutch New Guinea, arriving on the 17th.

VP-52 left for duty elsewhere on 3 August, the same day that the tender stood out of the Mios Woendi anchorage that had been her "home" for over a month, bound via Edema Island, British New Guinea, for the Admiralties.

Returning to Mios Woendi on 27 August after safely delivering her cargo and passengers of Fleet Air Wing 17, Wright embarked the officers and men of Patrol Aircraft Service Unit 1–12 for transportation back to Seeadler Harbor, Manus, where she arrived on 3 September.

Departing Manus the following day, Wright sailed for Milne Bay, New Guinea, where she debarked men from a construction battalion, and then proceeded with Pacific Service Force passengers, general cargo, and hospital patients to Brisbane, Australia.

With hundreds of troops embarked as passengers, San Clemente departed Chinese waters on 8 April, bound – via Yokosuka, Japan, and Pearl Harbor – for home.