As a station ship to the United Nations General Assembly at the Isle of Rhodes, she was the only American warship present when Greece received control of the long-contested Dodecanese Islands.

USS Hanson was scheduled to travel to Korea, bypassing her new home port of San Diego and heading straight to Pearl Harbor and becoming part of T.F.77, bound for Pusan, Korea, escorting US Marines to the war zone.En route to and when departing from Pusan, Hanson provided plane guard for the carriers, acted as a beacon for returning aircraft (bird dog operations), completed shore bombardment missions and sought out enemy planes with her air search radar.

As part of a unit detached from Task Force 77, two destroyers — Ernest G. Small and Hanson — cruiser Helena and battleship Missouri, were sent on a gun strike in Hŭngnam harbor.

Hanson would use her radar and ECM gear to help US Army rangers in their attempts to carry out operations behind enemy lines and give them naval gunfire support.

After a respite at San Diego, Hanson returned to Korea in December 1952, for task force operations, screening the fast carriers as they launched their aircraft against enemy supply lines and positions.

The battle-hardened destroyer also participated in shore bombardment, search-and-rescue (SAR) operations, and Formosa patrols before returning to the United States on 20 July 1953, shortly before the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

In addition to patrol, major portions of Hanson's Pacific deployments were devoted to tactical maneuvers and battle exercises with United States and allied ships as well as intensive antisubmarine hunter-killer training.

In the spring of 1962 and 1963, Hanson took part in the annual Australian celebration of the Battle of the Coral Sea, World War II's first carrier naval engagement in the Pacific.

Much of this training was centered on Hanson's role as a radar picket destroyer, designed to provide early warning of approaching enemy air, surface, or submarine forces.

On 1 April 1964, she was redesignated DD-832 and entered the San Francisco Naval Shipyard to undergo a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM MK I) conversion designed to prolong her effective life as a fighting ship for many years.

[1] With her conversion was completed on 6 December 1964, Hanson rejoined the Pacific Fleet early in 1965 as a unit of Destroyer Squadron 11 (DesRon 11), with her sister ship Dennis J. Buckley, which was also a recent convert from the DDR configuration.

On about 21 October, the ship underwent sonar tests at the Fleet Operational Readiness Accuracy Check Site (FORACS) range at Wilson Cove, San Clemente Island.

Hanson traveled to the Philippine Sea to avoid a typhoon (the storm raged on 9 March 1971 during the Ali-Frasier fight) and then moved into Da Nang to meet with advisors there to receive instructions for naval gunfire support.

Hanson stayed in Da Nang harbor for about four hours and then headed to her position along the coast where she spent about one to one and a half weeks providing gunfire support.

After one week in Bangkok, Hanson headed back to Subic Bay for a short stay and to ready for a trip northward toward Taiwan, the Ryukyu islands, and then Japan and Korea.

Hanson, while transiting from Subic Bay, Philippines, to Okinawa, Japan through the Ryukyu island chain encountered a Russian Riga Class Frigate (hull number 807) moving at a speed of 22 kn or more.

For at least two weeks Hanson conducted naval gunfire support off Vietnam, refueled helicopters in need of fuel, participated in plane guard duty at Yankee station in the Tonkin Gulf off Vietnam, and trailed Soviet vessels operating in the Sea of Japan.On 16 July, Hanson in company with Dennis J. Buckley departed Subic Bay, with her deployment completed she headed to San Diego.

Parks received a new propeller and at midnight 30 July began a great circle route for San Diego in order to catch up to Dennis J. Buckley and Hanson who left ahead of Floyd B.

Anderson steamed at Hanson's port side, the barrels of her guns were completely blackened and the front part of her mounts were black with red lead exposed.

Myles C. Fox was ordered farther to the northeast to act as a blocking element in case of enemy patrol-boat activity and to cover the rear of the formation when it would eventually turn to the west and onto a firing course.

Quite possibly the overwhelming fire from the cruisers and destroyers caused most of the North Vietnamese gunners to run for cover, and by the time they re-manned their positions, the task group was retiring.

At one point during Hanson's numerous firing engagements, her rear gun mount barrels had to be changed out in Da Nang by the repair ship USS Hector anchored in the harbor.

Also present but to the east on the horizon were two LPHs (Tripoli and Okinawa), and LCC Blue Ridge, ready for a dawn launching of helicopters to the Tam My and Quảng Trị city areas.

Hanson later steamed to just outside Da Nang harbor and met with a South Vietnamese (ARVN PTF- no709) which tied up alongside for the transfer of beer to the PBR for a July 4 celebration.

In July 1972, Hanson lost her main gyro and steering engine and put in at Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands for repairs and returned to the combat theater.

On 17 September 1972, Hanson received a report from Chu Lai spotters indicating Mộ Đức District was being overrun by some 1,000 (regiment size) enemy infantry.

An Army detachment of 120 ARVN and two Americans were in Mộ Đức District defending their position, with the help of 20th TASS FAC Air Force Captains Richard L. Poling and Joseph Personnett (reconnaissance pilots flying an armed OV-10), and desperately needed heavy artillery support to prevent its garrison from being over run.

However, Hanson would need to travel as quickly as possible to arrive in a timely manner, so it steamed at high speed through an anti-ship minefield and jagged coral reefs.

Hanson participated in a myriad of typical destroyer operations: Naval Gunfire Support, carrier escort, search and rescue, surface raider strikes and WBLC (Water Borne Logistics Craft Interdiction).

In July 2006, Liao Yang was sunk as a target in the South China Sea during Han Kuang, a Taiwanese national armed forces joint exercise.