During these “short-of-war” operations, Niblack fired the first U.S. depth charges of the war on 10 April 1941 (on the German submarine U-52), while rescuing survivors the Dutch cargo ship Saleier.

On 3 September 1942, while escorting Convoy TA-18, bound for New York City, a large fire broke out aboard the troop transport USS Wakefield (AP-21).

Mayo and the light cruiser USS Brooklyn (CL-40) closed to windward to take off passengers, a badly-burned officer, and members of the crew not needed to man pumps and hoses.

DesRon 7 continued to serve in the Atlantic Ocean until the Allied invasion of Sicily in August 1943, when Plunkett and Gleaves accepted the surrender of the small island of Ustica in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

On 9 October 1943, Gleaves and a British LCT rescued 57 survivors of USS Buck (DD-420) which had been sunk by the German submarine U-616 off the coast of Salerno when it was working in support of Operation Avalanche.

Hilary P. Jones provided gunfire support missions during the assault, but also acted as electronic jamming vessel in the successful attempt to prevent radio-controlled bombs from harassing the area.

In the weeks that followed she continued to range up and down the coast in support of the First Airborne Task Force destroying bridges, gun emplacements, railroad facilities and coastal vessels.

In December 2012, DesRon 7 shifted its homeport to Singapore where it acts as the tactical commander of littoral combat ships rotationally deployed to Southeast Asia.