Following fitting out at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Santa Barbara arrived at her selected home port, Davisville, Rhode Island, on 18 September 1970.

Santa Barbara departed from Davisville on 15 October for the Caribbean and six weeks of shakedown training at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Underway again on 11 January 1971, Santa Barbara arrived at the Naval Ammunition Depot, Earle, New Jersey, for her first regular loadout, which was completed four days later at the Naval Weapons Station, Yorktown, Virginia After a short period in Davisville, Santa Barbara got underway on 1 February for her first regularly scheduled fleet exercises.

Returning to Rhode Island in late May, she departed again on 5 June; this time ordered to the western Pacific on an extended deployment.

Decommissioned on 30 September 1998, Santa Barbara was transferred to the Military Sealift Command (MSC), Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force the same day and her hull number was changed to T-AE-28.

In the 1991 and 1994 deployments she earned South West Asia Service Medal, crossing into the Indian Ocean and Red Sea in support of the 5th Fleet.