Badger recommissioned at Philadelphia on 8 January 1940, Lieutenant Commander Frank Akers in command. During the next year she engaged in training operations in the Caribbean. Redesignated AVD-3 on 2 August 1940, she returned to Norfolk, Virginia on 12 January 1941 and subsequently tended planes while based at NS Argentia, Newfoundland, and Reykjavík, Iceland, until the spring of 1942. Ordered to Charleston, on 26 May 1942, she escorted convoys along the eastern seaboard, in the Gulf of Mexico, and to Recife and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, until returning to Norfolk on 15 January 1943 to be fitted out for Atlantic convoy duty. Through the spring of 1943 she operated out of Argentia escorting convoys bound for the United Kingdom. In June, she underwent overhaul at Norfolk, then sailed on 13 July for North Africa. Steaming with and, she sank on 23 July 1943 after four depth charge attacks broke up the deep-running submarine southwest of Sao Miguel, Azores; all 48 crew on board died. This victory came just a few hours before planes from Bogue attacked and sank not far away. After a landfall at Casablanca, Badger returned to New York on 23 August. During the next two months she made another escort voyage from New York to Casablanca, then returned to New York on 21 October. Departing Hampton Roads on 14 November, she sailed for North Africa with Bogue,,, and Clemson on an offensive anti-submarine patrol. On 12 December 1943, in the mid-Atlantic west of the Canary Islands this patrol engaged. A protracted fight ensued, with Grumman TBF Avenger and Grumman F4F Wildcat aircraft from Bogue dropping depth charges and Fido homing torpedoes, and the destroyers expending roughly 200 depth charges in total. After 27 hours, the submarine was sunk with the loss of 13 crew. After escorting another convoy from Norfolk to North Africa and back, Badger underwent conversion to high speed transport at Charleston and was redesignated APD-33 on 19 May 1944. Sailing for duty in the Pacific, she steamed via the West Coast and Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal where she arrived on 12 August. From there she carried to the Palau Islands. Reaching Angaur Island on 12 September, she screened warships bombarding the island and from 14 to 16 September sent her frogmen ashore for reconnaissance and demolition work. Intelligence was gathered and obstacles on the beach removed before the ship got underway on 12 October for Leyte, where until 18 October she supported the reconnaissance and bombardment of the east coast of that strategic island and again landed her frogmen. Departing on 21 October, she called at Kossol Passage, Manus, and Nouméa before participating in the Lingayen landings of 5–11 January 1945. In these she lent her effective fire support as requested, and on the first day of the landings, 5 January, shot down an attacking Japanese torpedo plane. Her frogmen landed on the beaches two days later, and, despite frequent air attacks, Badger continued screening during landings from 7 January until sailing on 11 January for Leyte and Ulithi. Until the spring of 1945, the veteran warship was overhauled at Ulithi; conducted patrols off Iwo Jima during heavy fighting on the island; and escorted ships from Guam to Guadalcanal, Nouméa, and Manus. She sailed from Ulithi on 2 April 1945 for Okinawa with carriers delivering replacement aircraft, and subsequently escorted convoys from Saipan to Okinawa. Badger sailed from Eniwetok on 24 June for Pearl Harbor. Ordered thence to San Francisco for reconversion, she reverted to DD-196 on 20 July 1945 and was later decommissioned at that port on 3 October 1945. George E. Badger was scrapped on 3 June 1946. As of 2005, no other U.S. Navy ship has been named George E. Badger.
