Named for a mountain range near Death Valley in Southern California, the USS Panamint, commissioned in October 1944, was active in the Pacific Theater until the war's end in September 1945. Toward the end of the war the ship served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Jack Fletcher.

The Panamint saw heavy action off the coast of Okinawa during the intense fighting to sieze the island. After the U.S. Tenths Army's capture of Okinawa and the formal surrender of Japanese forces in Tokyo Bay three months later, the Panamint received a delegation of Japanese Admirals and naval officers for the formal surrender of forces in Northern Japan.

Post-war, the Panamint made up a part of Joint Task Force One as an observation ship in Task Group 1.3 during the Operation "Crossroads" atomic weapons tests on Bikini Atoll in 1946. The Panamint was decomissioned in San Diego in January 1947 and scrapped in 1961.

For her time in combat, the Panamint and her crew were awarded one battle star, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp).