He was commended by the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, for "Leadership, personal courage and ingenuity in solving the many problems arising under adverse conditions" when Kearny was torpedoed off Iceland on 17 October 1941.

While acting as an escort for an Atlantic convoy, the destroyer made contact with the submerged enemy submarine and delivered two accurate depth charge attacks.

On 10 July 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily, Maddox was steaming alone in support of the assault at Gela, and was attacked by a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bomber of KG 54.

Following her stay at New York, she participated in training exercises in the Chesapeake Bay-Virginia Capes area until 13 December, when she entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard for installation of some experimental equipment.

Attached to the Surface Antisubmarine Development Detachment, Atlantic Fleet, she participated in the testing and evaluation of new weapons and equipment and made periodic training cruises in the Caribbean and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Following a cruise as plane guard to the aircraft carrier Leyte in early 1958, she returned to the Operational Development Force at Key West on 15 February.

She departed Charleston on 5 January 1959 and conducted five weeks of refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after which she returned to Key West and further experimental work.

This employment, testing antisubmarine detection and destruction devices, continued until January 1961, when she was deployed, with shore bombardment responsibilities, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In April, she joined the aircraft carrier Forrestal for antisubmarine warfare exercises, then returned to Key West on 1 May to operate with the Fleet Sonar School.

While on this tour of duty, Sarsfield also had the unique opportunity to participate in a spontaneous exercise with units of the Imperial Ethiopian Navy and the French Air Force.

On 28 July, she commenced UNITAS X, an exercise involving elements of the United States, Brazilian, Argentine, Colombian, Chilean, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Venezuelan, and Uruguayan navies.

In June, she commenced eight weeks of refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay, and upon completing it, returned to local operations out of Mayport for the rest of the year.

Throughout the summer, Sarsfield plied the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, first as plane guard for the carrier Saratoga, then, patrolling off Hainan Island.

She sailed with the 6th Fleet until 22 September, when she passed through the Straits of Gibraltar to join NATO units in exercises in the Bay of Biscay and in the North Sea.

Two days later, at the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli War, she departed Scotland to reenter the Mediterranean with the carrier John F. Kennedy and sped to the eastern end of that sea.

On 14 June 1974, in protest of perceived racism on the part of the command, nearly all of the ship's minority sailors occupied the fantail and refused orders to handle lines while Sarsfield was attempting a difficult mooring in an off-setting wind at the Charleston Naval Station.

In the fall of 1974, Sarsfield departed Mayport, Florida to participate in Northern Merger with NATO units, and enjoyed port visits in Plymouth, England and Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as Lubeck, West Germany.

Sarsfield deployed on a Mediterranean cruise from 27 July 1975 to 27 January 1976, and enjoyed port visits in Gibraltar, BCC, Barcelona, Valencia, Rota and Algeciras, Spain, Siracusa and Taormina, Sicily, Naples, Italy, Palma, Mallorca, as well as Athens, and after transiting the Bosporus and Dardanelles, steamed in company with USS Belknap in the Black Sea.

Port visits included Rota, Spain; Naples, Italy; Trapani, Sicily (helping the city recover from a flood); Kalamata, Greece (American-style hamburger cookout at the local orphanage at Christmas); Sfax, Tunisia; Palma and Morocco.

On return to the United States, many Taiwanese sailors joined the crew to learn ship operations before Sarsfield was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 October 1977.