On 12 June, the ship again sailed on a midshipman training cruise to Northern Europe, visiting the Azores; Aalborg, Denmark; Portsmouth, England; and Le Havre, France; before returning to Norfolk, on 3 August.

Shreveport, with Amphibious Squadron 2, departed Norfolk on 4 January 1973 for her first tour of duty with the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.

The squadron stopped at Morehead City, North Carolina, and embarked elements of the Sixth Marines (BLT 1/6) before it proceeded to Rota, Spain, where the vessel was assigned to CTF 61.

During her six-month deployment, Shreveport also visited ports in Italy, Greece, Crete, and Turkey before returning to Morehead City on 2 July.

Throughout 1974 and half of 1975, Shreveport was the flagship of the Caribbean Amphibious Ready Group and participated in various fleet exercises with the Marine Corps, occasionally also with South American Forces.

Thereafter Shreveport returned to fleet exercises in the Caribbean until September 1979 when she began another Mediterranean deployment where she completed four major amphibious operations with various European allies.

In September 1981, Shreveport visited Cancún, Mexico to support President Ronald Reagan's participation in the North-South Economic Summit.

From 1994 and 1995 saw Shreveport participating in Operation Provide Promise in the Adriatic Sea by flying video reconnaissance missions over Bosnia-Herzegovina utilizing the Pioneer UAV.

From February 2004 to September 2004 Shreveport deployed on a Mediterranean Cruise to the Persian Gulf to support Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group On 31 August 2005 USS Shreveport deployed with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group where USS Bataan had been since the day that the city of New Orleans was stricken and flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

After one last deployment in January 2007[4] as part of the Bataan Expeditionary Strike Group with her final Commanding Officer, Captain Paul Monger,[5] Shreveport was decommissioned on 28 September 2007[6] and towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by USNS Apache.