TSampson was assigned to Division 9 of the Atlantic Destroyer Force and conducted shakedown training based at Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.

The younger Hersey received the Navy Cross for distinguished service while commanding Sampson and would rise to the rank of commodore during World War II.

After war games off Provincetown, Massachusetts, Sampson cleared Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York, on 15 May 1917 to join the escort screen of a convoy which touched at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and reached Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, on 25 May 1917.

After repairs at the New York Navy Yard, Sampson was assigned to the 4th Division, 2d Flotilla, of the Destroyer Force and departed on 22 March 1919 to base her operations from the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island.

She reported to the Inspector of Ordnance for experimental testing of torpedoes and naval mines, but interrupted this duty in May 1919 to assist in guarding the route of NC-4 during that seaplane's crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, the world's first successful trans-oceanic flight.