After putting in at Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 March, Basilone conducted local operations and served as a unit of the Surface Anti-Submarine School at Key West during the rest of 1950 and most of 1951.

She spent late November and early December in the West Indies conducting training and then returned to Norfolk where she occupied the rest of the year and the first quarter of 1952 preparing for her first deployment to the Mediterranean.

Aside from the usual operations, the escort destroyer visited Naples; Augusta Bay, Sicily; Cannes, France; and Algiers, Algeria before departing the Mediterranean via Gibraltar on 26 November.

She spent considerable time off the French Riviera where took part in festivities celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Allied landings in World War II.

After a tender availability, Basilone resumed a normal schedule of operations, largely competitive division exercises conducted locally off the Virginia Capes during November.

Finally though, after almost three weeks of service to the Operational Development Force, the escort destroyer entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 13 September to begin a three-month overhaul.

Over the next five years, the warship continued to alternate tours of duty with the 6th Fleet with periods of service along the east coast and in the West Indies while based at Norfolk.

During her deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in the summer of 1958, Basilone joined other 6th Fleet units in patrolling the coast of Lebanon in response to internal political upheavals in that country.

After conducting local ASW exercises during mid-January and making a futile round-trip voyage to Mayport, Florida, and back late in the month to support the recovery of Col. John Glenn's Mercury flight which had to be delayed because of weather and technical difficulties, Basilone again departed Norfolk on 17 February along with her eight DesRon 36 squadron mates to rendezvous with the aircraft carrier Wasp for the voyage across the Atlantic.

In June 1963 Basilone was assigned North Atlantic duties to provide a homing beacon off the coast of Ireland for President Kennedy's pending flight to Europe.

On 27 November, following three weeks of preparation at Newport, Basilone commenced a four-month tour of duty with the 6th Fleet, serving primarily in the screen of a carrier task force in the western Mediterranean and visiting ports in Spain, Italy, and Majorca.

Following her return to Norfolk in March 1965, upkeep, maintenance, and the installation of a drone antisubmarine helicopter (DASH) system occupied her attention until early June.

During this period, Basilone also took part in numerous antisubmarine warfare (ASW) exercises, many of which were carried out in cooperation with British, Canadian, and German naval units.

Although tender availability at Newport occupied the destroyer for most of the rest of 1965, she did get underway to aid the aborted Gemini VI mission in October and spent two weeks engaged in ASW and amphibious exercises involving substantial Atlantic Fleet forces early in December.

On 26 January 1966, a week after departing Newport, Basilone transited the Panama Canal to complete the first leg of her passage to join Task Force 77 (TF 77) on Dixie Station off South Vietnam.

After 10 days plane-guarding the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga, the destroyer closed the shore to provide gunfire support in the IV Corps area from 14 to 19 March.

Following a 15-day availability at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, she sailed to waters off II Corps area on 7 May to provide gunfire support, including a two-day trip up the Saigon River to bombard Viet Cong targets on the 24th.

On 10 March, the warship put into the Boston Naval Shipyard to receive a new 5-inch gun mount in place of one severely damaged in a storm the previous November.

Basilone conducted ASW surveillance operations and port visits to southern France, Menorca, and Malta prior to departing Rota, Spain on 12 September.

Upon returning to Newport, upkeep and training exercises occupied the destroyer prior to serving as an ASW school ship at Naval Station Key West, Florida Following her return to Newport on 11 December, Basilone moored alongside the destroyer tender Cascade in preparation for an upcoming overhaul at the Boston Naval Shipyard which commenced on 11 January 1968.

The destroyer conducted refresher training at Guantanamo Bay during June and July then returned to Newport for a month of upkeep, local operations, and preparations for a scheduled deployment to a 7th Fleet assignment.

Aside from the usual task force operations, Basilone visited Malta; Tunis; İzmir, Turkey; Athens, Greece; and Naples, Italy.

With the exception of two days of pre-deployment ASW services provided to the submarine Tullibee in late July and a four-day port visit to New York City early in August, Basilone remained in Newport hosting the sailors' families, Navy War College staff members and students and acting as a spectator ship for the 1970 America's Cup yacht race.

Aside from task force operations and gunnery exercises, she paid visits to Crete, Athens, Naples, and Majorca before rejoining the 2d Fleet on 2 November.

She transited the Panama Canal on the 10th and, after stops at Oahu and Guam, arrived at Subic Bay on Independence Day ready to begin duty with the 7th Fleet.

On 16 August, she departed Subic Bay in company with Trippe and the two warships made their way, via Singapore and Sri Lanka, to Manama, Bahrain, where they became units of the Middle East Force.

At Mombasa, Basilone turned over her duties to her relief, Charles R. Ware, early in November and embarked on the long voyage back to the east coast of North America.

On the afternoon of 5 February 1973, while she conducted underway training and a burial at sea off the Virginia Capes, a boiler explosion killed seven of Basilone's crew.

She reached Naples on 4 February, loaded intelligence gear, embarked communication technicians and then sailed to Skaramangas Shipyard near Athens for repairs to her port shaft.

Following a 10-day tender availability at Naples, the warship resumed 6th Fleet and NATO exercises and punctuated them with visits to and upkeep in Greece; Genoa, Italy; Corsica; Sicily; and Majorca.