Du Pont sailed 2 September for a tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, during which she participated in highly realistic air defense and antisubmarine warfare problems.
She returned to Norfolk 12 March 1959, to prepare for Operation "Inland Seas,"[2] the historic first passage of a naval task force into the Great Lakes through the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
Du Pont crossed the Atlantic in August and September 1959, visiting Southampton, England, after serving as plane guard for the transatlantic flight of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On 28 January 1960 Du Pont sailed from Norfolk for a second tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, returning on 31 August for an overhaul in the Naval Shipyard where she remained through the end of 1960.
Back in the Far East on 10 October 1968, she began twenty-six days on the gun line supporting SEAL reconnaissance teams and ARVN units in the Mekong Delta.
[citation needed] Recommissioned on 9 May 1970, she returned to Norfolk and in April 1971, began antisubmarine warfare and routine operations along the Atlantic Coast, in the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean.
In 1979, Du Pont was relocated to the Bethlehem Steel Works Ship Yard in Hoboken, New Jersey, where the destroyer underwent a major refit.
The ship was assigned to the Nimitz battle group, remaining on patrol in the Persian Gulf following the release of American hostages held in Iran.
[citation needed] Du Pont was decommissioned on 4 March 1983 and sold for scrap on 11 December 1992 to the Fore River Shipyard and Iron Works.