After her shakedown cruise and conversion to a radar picket destroyer, Dyess sailed from Norfolk 7 November 1945 to join the 5th Fleet at Tokyo Bay 19 December for occupation duty in the Far East.

She served in local training cruises until August of that year when she sailed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to escort President Harry S. Truman, embarked in the battleship USS Missouri as far as Norfolk, where he transferred to the presidential yacht Williamsburg which Dyess escorted to Washington, D.C. Dyess arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, on 27 September 1947 for local training operations.

Until the end of 1958 Dyess made nine tours of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, patrolling to preserve peace and engaging in exercises with NATO forces.

Dyess operated along the east coast and off Cuba in 1959, and on 25 July arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, her new home port.

Dyess was decommissioned on 27 January 1981, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 27 February 1981, transferred to Greece on 8 July 1981 and cannibalized for spare parts.