Named in honor of Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, she was originally classified as a "destroyer leader" or frigate, in 1975 she was redesignated a cruiser in the Navy's ship reclassification.
Designated to carry out standardization trials for her class as well as special acoustical tests, Yarnell spent 28 October–26 November in the Caribbean operating out of Guantanamo Bay and then returned to Norfolk.
On her next Mediterranean deployment, which began 8 October, she transited the Dardanelles on 3 January 1966 and entered the Black Sea to operate close to the Soviet Union before returning to Norfolk in March.
Operations in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean brought the ship and her crew to a high degree of readiness before she sailed for her 3rd Mediterranean deployment early in 1967.
A year of testing all the new systems and the Yarnell set sail in July, 1970 on a UNITAS cruise for exercises with the naval forces of South American countries.
Following departure from Newport and an overnight visit at Dam Neck, VA, Yarnell sailed to San Juan, Puerto Rico to pick up the admiral for the cruise.
Yarnell made port visits at Naples, Genoa, and Venice, Italy; Nice, France; Mallorca, Valencia and Barcelona, Spain; and Athens, Corfu, Rhodes, and Kavalla; Greece.
Completion of overhaul also included a trip to New York, during which time she briefly ran aground, before ammunition load-out at Naval Weapons Station Earle, and a Home Port change to Norfolk.
On 19 November 1980 Yarnell, under the command of Captain Howard F. Burdick Jr, sailed with the USS Independence and her battle group to the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean, during which the ship made port calls at Mombasa, Kenya and Perth and Fremantle, Australia from 3–7 February 1981.
In late June 1990, Rear Admiral Thomas D. Paulson, Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Group Two, led the Yarnell and USS Kauffman to visit Poland in conjunction with BALTOPS '90, a U.S.