Nicholson deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1983 and returned to Charleston SC via the Suez Canal with a refueling stop in Djibouti.

The ship encountered heavy seas on the voyage west across the Atlantic and experienced a casualty to the sonar dome.

The dome was subsequently repaired in conjunction with a scheduled maintenance period at the Brooklyn Navy Shipyard between May 1984 and Feb 1985.

Nicholson was deployed for six months, in February 1990, with USS Dahlgren, as part of the Mid-East Force in the Persian Gulf.

The first was a pair of armed Iranian F-4s that overflew the ship in the Straits of Hormuz, and the second was that Nicholson and Dahlgren left the Persian Gulf for home just a week before Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Nicholson joined the NATO task force in the Puerto Rican Op-areas and detached in Den Helder, Netherlands.

Port Visits included Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico; St. Maarten, DVI; Boston, MA; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Tromso, Norway; Bergen, Norway; Den Helder, Neth; Antwerp, Belgium; Oporto, Portugal; Rosyth, Scotland; Frederikshavn, Denmark; Aarhus, Denmark; and St Johns, Newfoundland.

On 10 December 1996, Nicholson departed Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a scheduled six-month deployment to the Middle East Force.

Following this, and after departing the Persian Gulf on 2 January 1998, and transiting through the Suez Canal, Nicholson joined U.S. 6th Fleet and took part in Operation Allied Force, launching Tomahawks at numerous sites in Yugoslavia.

Over the following six months, all these units conducted multi-national and joint operations with navies of various European countries, and visited ports in Mediterranean and Persian Gulf nations.

Nicholson participated in strike missions against Afghanistan during 'Operation Enduring Freedom', firing Tomahawk missiles against targets, after 9/11.

The lower bomb burst symbolizes a subsurface depth charge or torpedo, while the two upper represent surface and aerial firepower.