USS Kaskaskia, a Cimarron class (T-3 type) oiler, was built at Newport News, Virginia, as the civilian tanker Esso Richmond. Launched in late September 1939, she was acquired by the Navy in October 1940 and placed in commission later in that month. She was sent to the Pacific in November 1940 and spent the next year supplying fuel to Navy ships and bases in the Hawaiian area.

During the months after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Kaskaskia mainly operated in the south Pacific. She was transferred to the Alaskan theater in mid-1942 but returned to the south Pacific in March 1943 and served there until July, when she went to California for repairs. For the rest of the Pacific War, Kaskaskia supported the great seaborne offensive that swept across the central Pacific to the Philippines and then turned northwards to seize islands closer to Japan. For a year after the fighting ended in August 1945, she helped with the occupation effort in the China-Korea-Japan area.

Kaskaskia carried fuel between the U.S., Asia and Pacific bases from 1947 until the Korean War began in mid-1950. She then began regular deployments to support ships operating off the Korean coast, with the first lasting for nearly a year, from September 1950 until late August 1951. Her second and third Korean War tours took place in January-July 1952 and from December 1952 into July 1953. The oiler made one post-war Far Eastern cruise, in 1954, before decommissioning in April 1955. She operated briefly with the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1957 and was stricken from the Navy List in January 1959.

Increasing Cold War tensions brought Kaskaskia back to active duty in the early 1960s. Reinstated as a Naval vessel in September 1961, she recommissioned in December of that year. During 1962 Kaskaskia served in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, taking part in space flight recovery activities and Cuban Missile Crisis operations. In 1963-1969, she continued to provide fuel to Navy ships in those areas, as well as deploying five times to the Mediterranean to support the Sixth Fleet. She celebrated her 30th anniversary afloat in September 1969, at the conclusion of her final Mediterranean cruise, and was decommissioned in the following December. USS Kaskaskia was sold for scrapping in September 1970.