She was then assigned to temporary duty in Honolulu, and arrived there on December 9, 1936, to participate in the U.S. colonization efforts of the Line Islands in the Pacific.

Duane was then assigned to weather patrols in the mid-Atlantic, and also carried out a survey of the western coast of Greenland in mid-1940.

On 1 April 1942 Duane was reassigned from weather patrols to convoy escort duty during the battle of the Atlantic.

Duane was attached to the Eighth Amphibious Force in the Mediterranean Sea, and took part in "Operation Dragoon", the invasion of southern France, in August 1944.

The ocean-weather station program was permanently established by multi-national agreement soon after the end of World War II.

Although the crew probably considered these patrols boring, they were important to the continued growth and safety of international over-water commercial air flights.

The mid-1970s were a period of transition for the Coast Guard with the passage of the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act and the nation's shift towards increased interdiction of narcotics smugglers.

Duane left Coast Guard service and was decommissioned on August 1, 1985, as the oldest active U.S. military vessel and was laid up in Boston for the next two years.