Wadleigh was named for Rear Admiral George H. Wadleigh. Bath Iron Works laid her down on 5 April 1943, launched her on 7 August, and commissioned her on 19 October. Before she went to the Pacific she helped escort Franklin Roosevelt home from the Cairo conference.
She covered the Marshalls landings, then the invasion of Saipan, where she took part in the sinking of the Japanese submarine RO-114. In September 1944 she was on radar picket north of the Palaus, then joined the minesweepers clearing Kossol Roads. She sank 22 floating mines with 40 mm fire. The next one was live and unswept. On 16 September she brushed it amidships. The blast killed three men, injured twenty, flooded three engineering spaces and a living compartment, put her down five feet by the stern, and listed her seven degrees to starboard. She made the West Coast, was rebuilt, and was back in May 1945 for picket and escort duty. She was in Tokyo Bay for the surrender.
Laid up at San Diego in January 1947, she recommissioned for Cold War Atlantic service and decommissioned on 28 June 1962. Chile took her on 26 July 1962 as Blanco Encalada. She served until 1982 and was sunk as a target on 28 September 1991.