She was christened 21 May 1976 by sponsor Madame Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, wife of the then-President of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

In the early Spring of 1980, Comte de Grasse visited New York City, the hometown of Captain Frank J. Lugo.

She was drydocked for a short period in November for voyage repairs and replacement of her Sonar Dome Rubber Window, before departing for a Mediterranean deployment on 1 December.

During that time, she took part in Exercise Roebuck near Scotland, Spring Train off Gibraltar, Bright Horizon and May West off Norway, Nor Ops, and Ocean Safari.

1986 saw Comte de Grasse take part in a number of gunnery, air targeting and submarine tracking exercises in the Virginia Capes and Puerto Rico operations areas.

She transited on 25 June through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, then from 4–6 July, conducted operations in the Strait of Hormuz, Eastern Patrol Area (SOHEPA).

Entering the Persian Gulf on 14 August, she transited the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea on 6 September before returning home on 9 November.

From 16 to 28 January 1990, Comte De Grasse spent time at the Vieques Gunnery Range where she earned the designation of Top Gun of the Year.

In preparation for her next deployment, Comte de Grasse completed Refresher Training in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, conducted various battle group exercises in the Caribbean Sea, such as FLEETEX 2–92, and successfully passed a myriad of pre-deployment inspections and exercises, including a Combat Systems Assessment (CSA), in which Comte de Grasse received the highest grade of any unit in the entire U.S. Atlantic Fleet during 1991.

During the deployment, she took part in intense battle group operations, developed and integrated new tactics for small combatants, conducted maritime interdiction operations in the Red Sea, took part in major exercises, such as NATO Display Determination, and supported United Nations humanitarian efforts in the Adriatic Sea near the troubled lands of the former Yugoslavian Republic.

She spent time dry docked in August, then participated in COMPTUEX, in the Caribbean Sea from 19 to 22 October, before finishing off the year with a fleet exercise in the Cherry Point operations area from 1 to 15 December.

On 12 January 1994, the ship's port main reduction gear was discovered to have been sabotaged, resulting in a delay in its deployment and $600,000 in damage ($1.23 million today).

1995 saw Comte de Grasse take part in CART II, from 7 to 16 January; in COMPTUEX in the Caribbean from 24 April to 14 May; then from 1 July until 3 December, in UNITAS XXXVI-95.

UNITAS 95 included operations and port calls in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Comte de Grasse was decommissioned and stricken 5 June 1998 and held at Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility (NISMF) as a parts hulk.