USS Oklahoma City, a 10,000-ton Cleveland class light cruiser built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned a few days before Christmas 1944. She worked up in the western Atlantic area, then went to the Pacific in the spring of 1945 to join the war against Japan. In early June she arrived in the western Pacific to begin escorting Third Fleet aircraft carriers as they launched raids against enemy forces and facilities in the vicinity of Okinawa and the Japanese home islands. After the fighting ended in mid-August Oklahoma City remained in the region until late January 1946. She then steamed to the U.S. West Coast, where she was decommissioned at the end of June 1947.


After nearly a decade in "mothballs" Oklahoma City was removed from the Pacific Reserve Fleet and entered a San Francisco, California, shipyard to begin conversion to a guided missile cruiser. In keeping with her intended new capabilities, she was redesignated CLG-5 in May 1957.