The Luftwaffe struck late in the evening of 11 April when the convoy was off Cape Bengut, Algeria, with a force of approximately 25 Dornier 217s and Junker 88s making bombing and torpedo runs.

Strickland continued on the Norfolk-to-Bizerte run for five months and, in October, shifted to the North Atlantic lanes, escorting tankers and troop transports to England and France.

She escorted an aircraft carrier to Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, on 29 August, and accompanied three merchant ships from there to Japan, arriving in Tokyo Bay on 2 October.

After shakedown off Guantánamo Bay, the destroyer returned to Norfolk for availability from 1 to 27 June; and then reported to Escort Squadron 16 at Newport, Rhode Island, where she began duty with the Eastern Air Defense Command.

With her new and complex electronics installation, Strickland worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. Air Force in a network of radar stations that were scanning the coasts of the United States.

Operating from her homeport, the ship served at various picket stations on the North Atlantic seaboard until October 1955 when she was overhauled at the New York Naval Shipyard.

With updated radar equipment, Strickland held training off Guantanamo Bay; then returned to Newport on 18 March 1956 for assignment to the picket line.

She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1972 and sold for scrapping to the West Waterway Lumber Company, Seattle, Washington (USA), on 13 August 1974.