The ship was named after Charles Howard Roan, a United States Marine who lost his life in action on the island of Palau during World War II.

Charles H. Roan was built by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts, launched on 15 March 1946, and commissioned on 12 September 1946.

On her first overseas deployment, Charles H. Roan sailed from Newport 9 February 1948 for a cruise which took her to the Mediterranean and service with the 6th Fleet, then into the Persian Gulf.

Within fifteen seconds the ships had broken clear of each other revealing that the collision had sheared away a large section of Brownson’s bow and several forward ordnance storage compartments were flooding.

Aboard Charles H. Roan, a sailor in the machine shop went into the sea through the hole torn in the hull, but within minutes Brownson’s boat had recovered him.

She sailed on to the western Pacific for 5 months of operations with the 7th Fleet, on patrol in the Taiwan Straits, and in carrier and amphibious exercises off Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines.

The division took departure from Subic Bay, 20 January 1955, and continued westward to call at Persian Gulf ports, transit the Suez Canal, and visit in the Mediterranean before returning to Newport 14 March.

She resumed her training operations until 7 July, when she was ordered north to take station as a picket off Iceland and Greenland during the flight of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Geneva Summit.

Since the Suez Canal was now blocked, December found Charles H. Roan bound for the Cape of Good Hope, rounding the African continent for 2 months of duty with the Middle East Force.

First, Charles H. Roan proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia, to take on board additional stores and ammunition necessary for a lengthy deployment, then sailed south to escort an amphibious group to training operations designed as preparation for any extension of the Middle Eastern trouble.

On 31 March 1960, Charles H. Roan arrived in the Mediterranean again for a cruise which included duty with the key Middle East Force, and visits to many Persian Gulf ports.

Now a first-line anti-submarine warfare (ASW) ship, Charles H. Roan again participated in a Mediterranean deployment with other units of the Sixth Fleet from April through August 1964.

In November 1964, after her deployment to the Mediterranean and following a brief operating period with units of the Second Fleet, she entered Boston Naval Shipyard for a three-month scheduled overhaul.

In January 1967, Charles H. Roan was underway again for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to undergo an Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI) along with other ships of Destroyer Squadron 10 (DesRon10).

Charles H. Roan also provided support to other US Navy ships during the Six-Day War, and assisted in escorting USS Liberty to Malta for repairs after her attack by Israeli forces.

She circumnavigated the globe with port calls (chronologically) at Port of Spain, Trinidad; Recife, Brazil; Luanda, Angola; Lourenco Marques, Mozambique; Port Louis, Mauritius; Saint-Denis, Reunion; Colombo, Sri-Lanka; Manama, Bahrain; Mombasa, Kenya; Victoria, Seychelles; Tamatave, Malagasy Republic; Nossi-Be, Malagasy Republic; Karachi, Pakistan; Singapore; Hong Kong; Yokosuka, Japan; Midway Island; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; San Diego, California; Panama Canal, to return to homeport at Newport on 31 October 1972.