USS Standard Arrow, a 7794 gross ton oiler, was built at Camden, New Jersey, in 1916 as the U.S. flag commercial tanker Standard Arrow. She was chartered by the Navy after the United States entered World War I and, after fitting out, was placed in commission at Mare Island, California, in August 1917. During the rest of the conflict she made several voyages between the Western Hemisphere and ports in the European war zone, transporting fuel oil and other supplies. This work was interrupted on 4 February 1918, when she collided with the tanker Norman Bridge. Repairs kept her in a U.S. shipyard until March, when she resumed her normal trans-Atlantic logistics operations. USS Standard Arrow completed her last Navy voyage in December 1918 and was turned over to the Shipping Board late in the next month. She was returned to her owner in February 1919.

After some two-and-a-half decades of further commercial operation, SS Standard Arrow was again acquired by the Navy in April 1944. Commissioned as USS Signal (IX-142), she operated for the rest of World War II as a station tanker at Majuro and Ulithi, providing oil to sustain Fleet operations as the war moved through the central and western Pacific to close in on the Japanese Home Islands. In February 1946 Signal was placed in the Maritime Commission's reserve fleet at Mobile, Alabama. The tanker was stricken from the Navy List a few weeks later and regained her original name. Standard Arrow was sold for scrapping in April 1947.