After he had rescued three or four wounded men from closed and burning compartments in the ship, Seaman Gary continued his efforts to save others until he lost his own life.

Following shakedown exercises out of Bermuda and post-shakedown overhaul at Charleston, Gary reported to the Commander Caribbean Sea Frontier at Guantanamo Bay for temporary duty on 5 February 1944.

Following her arrival at San Pedro Bay on 17 August, Thomas J. Gary remained in port until the 29th when she departed Leyte to screen the aircraft carriers of Task Group (TG) 77.1 during their passage to Korea.

16s were on the Colorado, North Carolina, South Dakota and Iowa Class battleships) En route, the task group was diverted to Formosa.

With Commander Escort Division 57 embarked, Thomas J. Gary was designated to liberate Allied prisoners of war (POW) who had been held on that island.

The American sailors maintained a state of readiness to repel possible attack, as Thomas J. Gary, with her sister ship 500 yards astern, threaded her way at nine knots through the unknown and dangerous waters.

Four Combat Air Patrol planes provided cover, and two anti-mine sweep planes from the carriers relayed word of the sightings of possible mines as the destroyer escorts picked their way through the hazardous approaches to Kiirun, making frequent changes of course to avoid sonar contacts which exhibited a suspicious similarity to those made by mines.

Later in the month, Thomas J. Gary steamed on to the Ryukyu Islands with the escort carrier group: and she operated out of Okinawa into October, conducting exercises in the East China Sea.

On 19 October, while at sea with the escort carrier group, she struck a submerged log, which caused considerable damage to her starboard propeller.

The destroyer escort departed Singapore on 8 April 1946 and set her course via the Suez Canal for the Mediterranean where she spent much of May visiting European ports.

On 25 September, tug Nancy Moran towed the destroyer escort from Charleston and headed for Green Cove Springs, Florida.

On 24 July 1956, Thomas J. Gary was delivered to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for conversion to radar picket escort ship; and, on 1 November 1956, she was designated DER-326.

Operating out of Newport, she completed 12 radar picket assignments in the 18 months, breaking the routine duty with a visit to Belgium and the United Kingdom in August 1958.

Thomas J. Gary next set her course of Guantanamo Bay for refresher training; then, on 10 July 1962, she steamed from Newport for now familiar North Atlantic picket deployment.

In April, a period of tender availability was cut short for Thomas J. Gary when she was called upon to take part in the unproductive search for the submarine Thresher lost off the Atlantic coast.

She spent March undergoing availability at Newport and, during April and May, patrolled on picket station off Florida, with time out in May for a good will visit to Fall River, Massachusetts, on Armed Forces Day.

She continued picket duties for the rest of the year breaking her routine with gunnery exercises off the Virginia Capes and a visit to the Naval Academy in October.

On 13 September, she departed Newport for a nine-month deployment in the Pacific which took her through the Panama Canal later that month and included support for Operation "Deep Freeze," a scientific expedition to the Antarctic.

Manning her station midway between McMurdo Sound and New Zealand, Thomas J. Gary acted as logistics headquarters for Operation "Deepfreeze" and stood ready to provide search and rescue for downed fliers.

During that period her duties included patrolling off of Cuba's south coast, as an intelligence gathering ship, monitoring the Russian presence there.

In July, she began a special four-month deployment during which she conducted intelligence support activities for antisubmarine forces in the Atlantic and earned a Navy Unit Commendation.

On this deployment, she helped to develop new techniques and tactics in antisubmarine warfare in such an exemplary manner that she was awarded another Navy Unit Commendation.

The next day, Thomas J. Gary was decommissioned in ceremonies at the Quai d'Honneur, Bizerte; and moments later, the ship was commissioned by the Tunisian Navy as the President Bourgiba.