Returning to her home port, San Diego, California, in February 1946, Gurke participated in training operations until 4 September 1947 when she sailed for another WesPac cruise.

She shared with five other destroyers the award of the Navy Unit Commendation to Task Element 90.62 for extraordinary heroism in support of the landing at Inchon, 13–15 September 1950.

Steaming up Flying Fish (So Sudo) Channel at high tide the first day, Gurke bombarded Wolmi-do island and the Inchon waterfront.

Communist fire concentrated on three of the "sitting duck" destroyers, Gurke taking three hits that caused two wounded[citation needed] and minor damage.

The destroyer's 5-inch batteries opened in a prelanding shore bombardment on 15 September 1950 until the first assault wave of Marines crossed the line of departure for Wolmi Do, which was secured by high noon.

After the Inchon landings, Gurke screened fast attack carriers launching powerful strikes against enemy positions and supply lines.

During the first year of war Gurke frequently served as flagship of Vice Admiral Arthur D. Struble and the 7th Fleet's Carrier Task Force 77 (TF 77).

But she continued, when deployed with the Seventh Fleet, to screen attack carriers and bombard enemy coastal supply routes and installations, once destroying a Communist train through accurate gunnery.

The remainder of the year was filled with a rapid succession of coastwise training exercises ranging north to Seattle, which continued until she sailed for the western Pacific on 12 May 1966.

On 1 July three North Vietnamese PT boats were detected 11 miles (20 km) away from Gurke and three sister destroyers and closing at high speed.

After a brief respite in Hong Kong, Formosa, and the Philippines in August, Gurke resumed duty in the Gulf of Tonkin in September and set a record in completing 113 in-flight refuelings.

Tombazis was fitted to serve as a flagship between 1980 and 1981, while the ship's armament was supplemented by the addition of an Otobreda 76 mm automatic gun on the helicopter deck and two twin launchers for Harpoon anti-ship missiles.