USS Soley, a 2200-ton Allen M. Sumner class destroyer, was built at Kearny, New Jersey. Commissioned in December 1944, she operated in the Atlantic before transferring to the Pacific fleet in August 1945. For the rest of that year and into early 1946, Soley supported post-war occupation activities in the Central Pacific and Japan. She then returned to the Atlantic for another year before entering the Reserve Fleet in April 1947.

In late January 1949, Soley recommissioned to begin more than two decades of continuous active service, mainly in the Atlantic. She went to the Mediterranean Sea for the first of many Sixth Fleet deployments in August 1950. In May-December 1952, the destroyer temporarily left the Atlantic, via the Panama Canal, to take part in Korean War combat operations, during which she used her guns to bombard enemy targets ashore. Soley returned to the U.S. east coast via the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal, thus completing a cruise around the World.

In January-August 1954 Soley again circumnavigated the Earth westbound for a second tour of Far Eastern duty. Thereafter operating in the Mediterranean and western Atlantic areas, her activities included many military exercises, plus rescuing the crew of the sinking merchant ship St. Eleftiero in January 1958 and participation in the Cuban quarantine in October-December 1962. Soley became a Naval Reserve Training Ship, based at Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1964. Following nearly six years of that duty, she was decommissioned in 1970. The former USS Soley was sunk as a target in September 1970.

USS Soley was named in honor of James Russell Soley, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1890-93.