The contract to build Pogy was awarded on 23 March 1963, and her keel was laid down on 5 May 1964 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey, on 5 May 1964. She was launched on 3 June 1967, under the sponsorship of Mrs. George Wales. On 5 June 1967, the contract for her construction was canceled, and she was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an incomplete state and laid up.