Yakutat (AVP-32) was laid down on 1 April 1942 at Seattle, Washington by Associated Shipbuilders, Inc. She was launched on 2 July 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Peter Barber, a mother who had lost three sons when the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was sunk on 7 December 1941 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and was commissioned on 31 March 1944.

Arriving at Kwajalein on 6 July 1944, she shifted to Eniwetok within a week, where she embarked officers and enlisted men of a patrol service unit and took on board a cargo of 5-inch (127 mm) illuminating ammunition.

She provided the aircraft with gasoline and lubricating oil via bowser fueling boats and commenced servicing planes by the over-the-stern method as well.

[1] With nine Martin PBM Mariner flying boats operational, VPB-216 was based on Yakutat, conducting long-range patrols and Anti-submarine warfare sweeps daily.

[1] Reaching Apra Harbor, Guam, on 30 November 1944, Yakutat loaded spare parts for Martin PBM Mariner flying boats before she got underway on 2 December 1944 to return to Saipan.

She tended seaplanes there for a little less than a month before departing for Okinawa on 23 March 1945 to take part in Operation Iceberg, the conquest of the Ryūkyū Islands.

She established seadrome operations at Kerama Retto on 28 March 1945 and spent the rest of the important Okinawa campaign in seaplane tending duties.

The presence of Japanese aircraft in the vicinity on numerous occasions meant many hours spent at general quarters stations, lookouts' eyes and radar alert for any sign of approaching enemy planes.

Yakutat provided quarters and subsistence for the crews of the Mariners and furnished the planes with gasoline, lubricating oil, and jet-assisted take-off (JATO) units.

The Mariners conducted antisubmarine and air-sea rescue ("Dumbo") duties locally, as well as offensive patrols that ranged as far as the coast of Korea.

[1] Although Yakutat received a dispatch on 21 June 1945 to the effect that all "organized resistance on Okinawa has ceased,"[5] her routine remained busy.

On 28 June 1945, for example, a Consolidated PB2Y Coronado flying boat crashed on take-off and sank approximately 500 yards (457 m) off the starboard beam of the ship.

She remained there, tending seaplanes, largely anchored but occasionally moving to open water to be free to maneuver when typhoons swirled by.

On one occasion, while returning to Chimu Bay after a typhoon evacuation, Yakutat made sonar contact on a suspected submarine on 3 August 1945.

[1] Yakutat was at Chimu Bay when Japan capitulated and hostilities ended on 15 August 1945, bringing World War II to a close.

Yakutat underwent a brief availability alongside destroyer tender USS Cascade before she commenced her seaplane tending operations at Wakanoura Wan.

In September 1948, she was towed to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, California,[1] where she underwent conversion for service as a weather-reporting ship.

[7][8][9][10] [11] In December 1952, Yakutat rescued survivors of a plane crash off the entrance to St. George's Harbor, Bermuda, with her small boats.

[1] On 14 September 1953, Yakutat performed emergency repairs by constructing a concrete bulkhead aboard and pumping the bilges of the Spanish merchant ship Marte, which had a large hole at the waterline, about 750 nautical miles (1,390 km) southeast of Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, Canada.

Yakutat assisted the damaged Liberian merchant ship Bordabere 400 nautical miles (740 km) south of Cape Race, Newfoundland, between 27 April 1965 and 3 May 1965.

Yakutat's crew shored up Bordabere, pumped out seawater that had flooded her, and escorted her to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The squadron was activated at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 24 April 1967 when its commander, Captain John E. Day, hoisted his pennant aboard his flagship, the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Gresham.

The squadron's other Vietnam War duties included fire support for ground forces, resupplying Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats, and search-and-rescue operations.

They departed Pearl Harbor on 26 April 1967 and reported to Commander, United States Seventh Fleet, for Market Time duty on 4 May 1967.