The destroyer participated in fleet exercises held in the Hawaiian Islands in late February; and, in early March, she assisted Tucson in a fruitless search for survivors of the foundered merchantman Fort Dearborn.

Bausell then conducted surveillance operations off the Yangtze estuary, outside Tsingtao, and near the Barren Islands, returning to Subic Bay on 27 January.

Operating with HMS Cockade during this tour, Bausell patrolled the Songjin–Wonsan area for North Korean small craft and conducted shore bombardment missions from 24 to 28 April.

Following a port visit to Hong Kong and a short repair period at Sasebo, the destroyer returned to the United States early in April 1955.

During these cruises, she conducted ASW exercises with other 7th Fleet units, patrolled the seas off China and Korea, and trained with other navies in Philippine and Australian waters.

In July 1960, Bausell entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to undergo alterations as part of the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) program.

Devised to counter growing numbers of Soviet submarines, the conversion process armed Bausell with antisubmarine rockets (ASROC) and ASW torpedoes, added helicopter equipment and advanced electronics gear, and improved her radar and sonar capabilities.

After these modifications were completed on 15 July 1961, the warship made a short shakedown cruise to Vancouver, British Columbia, before steaming to San Diego.

Following an extended maintenance period at the Naval Repair Facility, San Diego, Bausell resumed local operations out of that port on 22 March 1964.

These included night planeguard assignments for aircraft carriers off the California coast, intensified ASW training to cope with the new Soviet submarines operating in the Pacific, and a six-week midshipmen cruise to Tacoma, San Francisco, and Pearl Harbor during the summer.

Her first assignment in the South China Sea consisted of monitoring the movements of the Russian trawler Protractor and preventing that ship from intercepting Navy tactical communications.

In addition to providing planeguard and screening services for the carriers Ranger and Ticonderoga, she also served as a naval gunfire support (NGFS) ship and on the Tonkin Gulf search and rescue (SAR) station.

Beginning on 23 September, shipyard workers modernized her 5-inch gun mounts, reworked the main engineering plant, and overhauled the sonar, fire-control radar, and electronic counter-measures (ECM) gear.

After a successful sea trial on 22 December, Bausell began a series of exercises—including gunnery, shore bombardment, planeguard, and helicopter training—that lasted through April 1967.

Departing San Diego on 7 September 1968, Bausell stopped at Yokosuka and Subic Bay, before joining the carrier Coral Sea in the Gulf of Tonkin on 10 October.

Four days later, after rendezvous with the cruiser Canberra, the vessel conducted a week of naval gunfire missions against North Vietnamese coastal targets.

Arriving at San Diego on 4 March, the warship served as an engineering school ship and conducted other local operations until 28 July when she entered Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

The warship cruised on the gunline in September, firing at targets as needed, and screened the carrier Bon Homme Richard on "Yankee Station" in October.

In company with the destroyer Parsons, the ships conducted a naval gunfire support mission off Point Virna before putting into Vũng Tàu on 11 January.

She conducted screen and lifeguard operations for several days, dutifully rescuing a man overboard from Camden on 6 March, until ordered to the Vietnamese coast.

For the next two months, the warship served on the gunline, firing support missions to aid friendly forces ashore and repeatedly suppressing shore batteries on Hon Matt Island.

On 28 October, Bausell rendezvoused with the destroyer Cochrane; and, together, they commenced bombardment missions on petroleum storage sites, shore batteries, and roads in the Đồng Hới area.

Ordered south to evade a typhoon, the destroyer returned to the gunline on 16 November for eight days of fire support missions before steaming to Yokosuka on 5 December.

Underway replenishment kept her on the line, firing at harassment and interdiction targets as well as at the occasional hostile shore battery, until the truce began on 28 January.

Underway on 22 March, Bausell visited Kobe, carried out gunnery shoots near Okinawa, and conducted ASW exercises with the submarine Sailfish.

After a day in Buckner Bay to load fuel and supplies, she joined the destroyers Gurke and Leonard F. Mason for a large combined US/ROKN amphibious exercise off Yang Po Ri, South Korea.

During the ensuing Operation Frequent Wind, the destroyer screened other Navy ships as they evacuated Americans and South Vietnamese from the Saigon area.

These included refresher training, escort services with Midway, and participation in Exercise "Tae Kwon Do IX" with elements of the South Korean Navy.

The destroyer steamed near Honshū and Hokkaidō in the first two months of 1976, providing escort services for 7th Fleet carriers, before conducting ASW exercises with Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) warships.

On 10 November Bausell began a six-week drydock and repair period at Yokosuka, during which it was determined she would return to the United States the following year for retirement.