USS Milwaukee, a 7050-ton Omaha class light cruiser built at Tacoma, Washington, was commissioned in June 1923. Shortly afterwards she made a shakedown cruise across the Pacific to Australia, and on the way gathered oceanographic data using new sonic depth-sounding equipment. For nearly two decades afterwards, Milwaukee served in both the Atlantic and Pacific areas. Among her activities during this time were participation in hurricane relief activities in Cuba in October 1926, cruises in Asiatic waters in the late 1920s and in 1938, locating the Atlantic Ocean's greatest depth in February 1939, and taking part in Neutrality Patrol work during the early 1940s.

In mid-1941, as the United States moved closer to hostilities with Germany, Milwaukee became part of a newly-formed patrol force in the South Atlantic. Operating out of Brazil, she remained in this assignment for nearly three years, with a brief break early in 1942 when she escorted a convoy to the South Pacific. In May 1942, Milwaukee helped to salvage the torpedoed Brazilian merchant ship Comandante Lyra. She was also closely involved with the interception and destruction of the German blockade runner Annaliese Essberger on 21 November 1942.

Milwaukee left the South Atlantic in February 1944 and escorted a convoy from New York to the United Kingdom. In March and April she was part of a British convoy that sailed to Murmansk, on the north coast of Russia. Soon after her arrival there, Milwaukee was transferred under lend-lease to the Soviet Navy, which renamed her Murmansk and operated her through the rest of World War II, and beyond. Finally, in mid-March 1949, the now-obsolete cruiser was returned to the United States. Immediately laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, USS Milwaukee was sold for scrapping in late 1949.