During the next year, Kern continued tanker operations out of Pearl Harbor, supplying American bases on Midway, Canton, and Palmyra Islands with gasoline and oil.

During the effort to repel Communist aggression in Korea, she supplied fighting ships of the mighty 7th Fleet with gasoline and oil.

During the late spring and throughout the summer of 1957, she returned to tanker duty for Naval replenishment operations in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska.

She entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay and remained under MSTS control until 10 April 1958, when she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred to the Maritime Administration.

She remained berthed at Suisun Bay, California, until she was sold on 2 December 1975 to the National Metal & Steel Corp, Terminal Island, Ca as part of a lot of 4 vessels for $528,529.19.

Eligible crew members of Kern could claim the following medals: This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.