Yellowstone laid down on 16 October 1944 at Tacoma, Washington by the Seattle Division of the Todd-Pacific Shipyards, Inc.; launched on 12 April 1945; sponsored by Mrs. F. A. Zeusler, the wife of Capt.

After shakedown training out of San Diego and repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to correct minor deficiencies which appeared during her initial cruise, Yellowstone operated in the Seattle, Washington area into March 1946.

She departed Seattle on the last day of the month, transited the Panama Canal on 11 April, and arrived at Newport, Rhode Island on the 20th to take up her duties tending destroyers of the Atlantic Fleet.

In time, this valuable adjunct to the fleet earned a reputation for reliability and dependability that caused some to nickname her "Old Faithful," after the famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

In October 1969 she performed a noteworthy repair job when she replaced 1,162 tubes in the number one propulsion boiler of USS Forrest Royal (DD-872) as that ship was preparing to deploy to the Mediterranean.

After a brief in-port period at Piraeus, Greece from 18 March to 5 April, Yellowstone returned to Naples, where she subsequently performed her second underwater propeller replacement of the deployment on the USS Corry (DD-817).

Struck from the Naval Vessel Register the next day and subsequently transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal, the veteran auxiliary was sold for scrapping in September 1975.