Laid down 3 September 1940, she was built concurrently with Emmons; and at her launch 23 September 1941, she was named for cousins who attained flag rank in the US Navy during the Civil War. Commissioned 26 January 1942, she completed her shakedown and with Emmons and Federal-built sisters Ellyson, Hambleton and Rodman, was attached to Destroyer Division 19 of Destroyer Squadron 10.

Known by her crew as the “Mighty Mac” or the “Dipsy Doodle,” she operated mainly in the Atlantic beginning on the North Atlantic Patrol. After overhaul at Boston, Macomb again operated as convoy escort along the east coast and in the Caribbean. After supporting the invasion of North Africa in November 1942, Macomb returned to the North Atlantic, operating from Argentia, Newfoundland to Iceland and England in defense of Allied convoys against German U-boat “wolfpacks.” After a tour of duty with the British Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow, Macomb resumed operating off the Atlantic seaboard from August 1943 through early 1944, interrupted one more time in December for an uneventful to the Azores, Sierra Leone and Dakar, Senegal.

On 20 April 1944, Macomb took departure from Boston for the Mediterranean, where she operated off the Algerian coast on antisubmarine duty. Just before midnight on 16 May, she commenced a 72-hour action with Ellyson, Hambleton, Rodman, Emmons, Gleaves, Nields and a British Wellington bomber—one of the most extended submarine hunts of the war, later called Operation “Monstrous”—which ended with the sinking of U-616. She and her squadron concluded their Mediterranean operations in August–September in support of the invasion of southern France.

Converted at Charleston as fast minesweeper DMS 23 in November–December 1944, Macomb and her squadron then went to the Pacific as Mine Squadron 20 for the invasion of Okinawa. On radar picket duty there after initial minesweeping and despite being undergunned compared with other unconverted destroyers, Macomb shot down multiple enemy planes including three on 27 April. She also shot down one at twilight on 3 May at Radar Picket Station No. 9 but was crashed by a second, causing extensive damage in an action cited in the Navy Unit Commendation she received for having “. . . by her own aggressiveness and the courage and skill of her officers and men, contributed essentially to the success of the Okinawa invasion . . . .”

Repaired at Saipan, Macomb rejoined her MinRon 20 sisters operating off Japan with the Third Fleet on 13 August and entered Sagami Wan on the 27th. On the 29th, with Ellyson and Jeffers, she swept the Uraga Suido in advance of the Third Fleet’s grand entrance into Tokyo Bay and remained on station there to witness the surrender ceremony on 2 September. Departing two days later, she resumed minesweeping duties elsewhere in Japanese waters and off Okinawa, near the entrance to the Yellow Sea and in the Chosen Straits. Finally departing Sasebo on 5 December, Macomb at last returned home to Norfolk.

Like other destroyer-minesweepers, she was not decommissioned but operated with the Atlantic Fleet from Charleston beginning in June 1946, participating in patrols and exercises along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean Sea. In September-October 1949, March-October 1951 and April-October 1953, she saw tours of duty in the Mediterranean Sea with the Sixth Fleet in support of diplomatic efforts.

In July 1954, Macomb was placed in reserve, then decommissioned 19 October and transferred to Japan as Hatakaze (“flag-fluttering breeze,” DD-182) in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.