Planter was built as the U.S. Army mine planter USAMP Col. George Ricker by Marietta Manufacturing Company, Point Pleasant, West Virginia and delivered to the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps, Mine Planter Service May, 1943. The ship was acquired by the U.S. Navy on 4 April 1944 and commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia, on the same date, Lt. T. T. Scudder, Jr., USNR, in command.