Prior to her NOAA career, she was in commission in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1967 to 1970 as US FWS Miller Freeman.

[2] She was outfitted with a large live-tank system which allowed scientists to sustain live sea specimens under pressure aboard ship.

Work on her rigging eventually resumed, including the installation of a much-needed five-ton (4,536-kg) crane aft, and when it finally was completed she was recommissioned in 1975.

Her research activities were interrupted on 22 October 1975, when the United States Coast Guard asked her to assist the crabbing vessel Aquarian, which had lost her steering while operating in the Aleutian Islands.

[1] In 1976, Miller Freeman discovered mastodon or mammoth tusk, tooth, and jaw fragments during trawl hauls in the Chukchi Sea and Kotzebue Sound.

[1] In 1988, two of Miller Freeman's crew members – Lieutenant Edward R. Cassano, NOAA Corps, and Daniel W. Granstrom – received the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for their role in fighting a major fire that broke out aboard the ship while she was in port at Seattle.

[1][4] Awaiting sale for scrapping, she was moored in Lake Washington in Seattle on 6 May 2013 when welding operations started an accidental fire in a storage locker aboard her.

[1] As of early 2018, ex-Miller Freeman reportedly was tied up at a commercial tug and towing company's facilities adjacent to the Pattullo Bridge in the Fraser River at New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.