En route home, the ship made recruiting stops at New Orleans and Miami before reaching Norfolk on 16 August and beginning preparation for her post-shakedown overhaul.

Less than a week after the work started, it was interrupted by rising tension in the Middle East; and Ainsworth was placed in a 36-hour ready standby status so that she would be able, if necessary, to race to the Mediterranean.

Following leave and upkeep, the ship underwent tender availability alongside USS Puget Sound and then prepared for operations in the Caribbean which lasted until 24 March 1975 when Ainsworth again headed home.

She arrived in Hampton Roads on 27 March and, but for a midshipmen training cruise during the latter half of June and a run back to the West Indies from 22 to 29 August, she worked in the Norfolk–Virginia Capes area until early autumn.

On 3 October, the ocean escort headed across the Atlantic for her first visit to the Mediterranean, beginning a routine of alternating deployments to the 6th Fleet with operations on the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean.

She left the Mediterranean on the last day of October and devoted the next three weeks to Operation "Ocean Safari" in the northern Atlantic and then spent from 22 to 28 November at Portsmouth, England, in company with the frigate Bowen.

Her operations during the next five months took her almost the full length of the Mediterranean as she visited ports in Italy, Greece, Turkey, France, and Spain before she headed home on 26 April 1976.

After reaching Norfolk on 5 May, the frigate operated in the Hampton Roads–Virginia Capes area for the remainder of the year with the exception of a trip up the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis in late September and early October for a visit to the Naval Academy.

She stopped at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; Fort-de-France, Martinique; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, before taking part in Exercise "CARIBEX 1–77" from 11 to 21 February.

Upon her return to Norfolk on George Washington's Birthday, the ship readied herself for another deployment to European waters and got underway across the Atlantic on the last day of March.

The ship reached Hampton Roads on 21 October and remained there until getting underway on 28 November for MARCOTT 3/77, a joint exercise with Canadian warships which kept her busy until she returned to Norfolk in mid-December.

carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, guided missile cruiser Virginia, and destroyer Peterson also took part in this demonstration which was observed by President Jimmy Carter.

On St. Patrick's Day, she arrived at Jacksonville, Florida, and spent the rest of March in that vicinity supporting advanced underway training of surface warfare officers.

Then, with fighting skills again honed to a keen edge, she returned to Norfolk on 23 August and operated locally until putting to sea on 1 October for 12 days of combined underway training exercises along the east coast and in waters off Puerto Rico.

She then prepared for READEX 1–81 and gunfire qualifications which kept her busy until 17 February when work began on making the ship ready for another deployment to the Middle East.

After refueling at Sitra, Bahrain, she operated near the Strait of Hormuz until 11 May and then took part in Exercise PASSEX in the Gulf of Oman with the British vessels Bacchante and Minerva.

Following a month in leave and upkeep status at Norfolk, the ship moved to the York River on 15 October to take part in ceremonies celebrating the bicentennial of the American victory at Yorktown.

On 20 October, she headed for the Bahamas to serve as a schoolship in antisubmarine warfare training for future commanding officers on the AUTEC Range at Andros Island.

Following a tender availability at Masirah, Oman, she got underway with carrier America's battle group for "Weapons-Week" operations in the vicinity of Diego Garcia, the American naval base in the Indian Ocean.

On ll April, the ship headed back toward the northern Arabian Sea in company with America and, en route, participated in Exercise "PASSEX" which included Australian warships.

The ship transited the Suez Canal on 30 April and conducted special operations in the central Mediterranean with Nimitz's battle group before she was detached from the 6th Fleet on 10 May to return home.