USS Elliot was a 1090-ton Wickes class destroyer built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Commissioned in January 1919 she deployed to the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean in April-June 1919 and in July passed through the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet. In March 1920 Elliot left the West Coast for the western Pacific. Serving with the Asiatic Fleet for the next year and a half, she operated in Philippine and Chinese waters, with the latter duty including a trip up the Yangtse River in June 1920. The destroyer was decommissioned at San Diego, California, in May 1922, several months after her return from the Far East.

Elliot returned to commissioned service in February 1930. Thereafter she was generally stationed in the Pacific, but in 1934 participated in U.S. Fleet maneuvers in the Atlantic and Caribbean. The following year she began work towing high speed gunnery targets and later in the decade was used for experimental and training duties. In 1940 Elliot was converted to a high-speed minesweeper, receiving the hull number DMS-4 in November. She operated in the Hawaiian area for the remaining year of peace and the first half year of the Pacific War.

Sent to the Aleutians in July 1942, Elliot participated in a bombardment of Kiska in August and swept mines during the May 1943 invasion of Attu, but was mainly employed on patrol and escort service during her time in Alaskan waters. Returning south in June 1943 she was used for training and target towing for the rest of her career, initially at San Diego and, after August 1944, at Pearl Harbor. Elliot was redesignated AG-104 in June 1945 and returned to the West Coast for inactivation in July. Decommissioned in October 1945, USS Elliot was sold for scrapping in January 1946.