Often she carried, in addition to her cargo fuels, landing craft, aircraft, provisions, mail, medical supplies, and passengers.

The tanker's convoy voyages during this period took her to Casablanca, Oran, Bizerte, Rosneath, Derry, Fayal, and Port Royal in addition to frequent runs to the Texas and Caribbean oil centers.

During this period she made three runs to the Persian Gulf for the products with which to fuel the ships at Yokosuka, Sasebo, Jinsen, Fusan, Taku, Tsingtao, and Manila.

During the next two and a half years, interrupted by overhaul August to December 1948, Mattaponi completed two round-the-world voyages in addition to making numerous runs to the Persian Gulf and one to Aruba from such ports as Yokosuka, Sasebo, Buckner Bay, Manila, Piraeus, Taranto, and Norfolk.

Soon recommissioned, after the outbreak of the Korean War, on 28 December 1950, Mattaponi served for almost four years as a Military Sea Transport Service vessel with the designation T‑AO‑41.

With one interruption, a cruise to the Marshalls, August to September 1953, she continued to operate off the west coast with periodic voyages to the Aleutian and Hawaiian Islands until decommissioning again 12 October 1954.

On 2 July 1963, she departed for the western Pacific where she serviced ships of the 7th Fleet in the Japanese, Philippine, and East and South China Seas.

On 3 September the veteran oiler left San Francisco for the West Pacific, providing services for the 7th Fleet until the end of March 1967.

Mattaponi's bell is currently on loan from the Naval Historical Center to the Fluer de Lis Chapel in Upland, California.