"Enterprise" was launched on 3 October 1936 at Newport News Shipbuilding. She was sponsored by Lulie Swanson, who was the wife of the Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson. "Enterprise" was commissioned on 12 May 1938. "Enterprise" sailed south so that her performance could be tested. This took her to Rio de Janeiro. After she returned, she was used along the east coast and in the Caribbean until April 1939. This is when she was ordered to serve in the Pacific.