The Lionfish was launched on November 7, 1943 and participated in the Pacific Campaign of World War II. She was decommissioned after the war and recommissioned in 1951. Decommissioned again in December 1953, but recommissioned in 1960 and used as a reserve training ship until the summer of 1972 when she was placed on permanent loan at the Fall River, Massachusetts Battleship Cove.