Following the consolidation of American control of Japan in October, Firedrake was released from duty and sailed for the United States East Coast on 1 November, arriving at Yorktown, Virginia on 13 December via Eniwetok, Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal.

Following the North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950, and the ensuing intervention by United Nations forces, the U.S. Navy began reactivating warships and auxiliaries to support the greatly expanded duties of the Department of Defense.

Firedrake's mission did not end after the Korean armistice of July 1953, as the warships of Task Force 77 continued operations off Korea to enforce the terms of the ceasefire and began patrols elsewhere in the western Pacific.

During her fourth deployment (3 January - 10 June 1955), Firedrake took part in the 6–13 February evacuation of 29,000 Chinese Nationalist troops and civilians from the Tachen Islands off the coast of China.

Firedrake extended her deployment for two months to support the growing task force of U.S. Navy warships in the region, not returning to Concord until early October.

Following a tender availability alongside the repair ship USS Markab at Naval Air Station Alameda, a hull cleaning at Todd Shipyards in San Francisco, and the addition of a helicopter landing pad on her stern, Firedrake sailed for the western Pacific on 25 October 1965.

She operated out of Naval Station Subic Bay starting in mid-November and spent the next six weeks supplying ships with, as put by the command historian, "everything from bombs, to mail, to Christmas trees."

Just before Christmas 1965, Firedrake's crew spotted a lone survivor lashed to a hatch cover and called in a helicopter from USS Sacramento to pluck him from the water.

Her next deployment (February - September 1969) was much the same, when she serviced 18 auxiliaries, 15 carriers, 13 large warships, including battleship USS New Jersey, and 54 small combatants during 72 days on the line.

Following local operations out of various California ports, repairs and upkeep at San Francisco and a series of service inspections, Firedrake conducted one last deployment to the western Pacific.