USS Chester, a 9200-ton Northampton class light cruiser built at Camden, New Jersey, was commissioned in June 1930. After a shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean Sea, she became flagship of Commander Light Cruiser Divisions, Scouting Fleet. In July 1931, she was reclassified as a heavy cruiser and her hull number was changed from CL-27 to CA-27. Through the 1930s, Chester was active in fleet exercises and special assignments. Among the latter was a voyage to the Philippines in September-December 1935 and a good-will cruise to South America in November-December 1936.

Chester was based at Pearl Harbor beginning in early 1941 and escorted two U.S. Army transports to the Philippines in October and November of that year. She was at sea when Japan began the Pacific War with their 7 December 1941 suprise attack on Pearl Harbor and operated in the Hawaiian area during the weeks that followed that raid. In January 1942, the cruiser took part in the reinforcement of Allied positions in the southern Pacific. On 1 February, she was damaged by a Japanese bomb during a raid on enemy facilities in the Marshall Islands. After repairs, Chester went back to the south Pacific, where in early May she participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Overhauled on the west coast during the Summer of 1942, Chester was next assigned to take part in the Guadalcanal campaign, but had only spent about a month in the area when she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 20 October and had to return to the U.S. for extensive repairs. She was back in the Pacific war zone in September 1943 and during the next six months participated in the invasions of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. Sent to the North Pacific in late May 1944, Chester bombarded Japanese-held islands in the Kuriles during June. Moving to the central Pacific, she shelled Wake and Marcus Islands in September and October, then steamed west to participate in the Leyte operation and the resulting Battle of Leyte Gulf.

In February 1945, Chester's guns supported the invasion of Iwo Jima. During the war's final two months, she operated off Okinawa and China and in the north Pacific, where she assisted in occupation activities in September and October. Her final active assignment was as a transport, bringing service personnel home from the central and western Pacific. Chester moved into the Atlantic in early 1946 and was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June of that year. Following thirteen years in "mothballs", she was sold for scrapping in August 1959.