Since commissioning, the major portion of Utina's long Navy career was spent in the western Atlantic Ocean and in the West Indies.

In 1951, she was reassigned to Norfolk, Virginia but continued to deploy each year to the base in Cuba for several weeks of operations—frequently in conjunction with the annual "Springboard" fleet exercises held in the West Indies.

Throughout her quarter of a century of service with the Navy, Utina altered her routine of operations along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies only twice.

Her second departure from her primary zone of operations came in June 1967 when she steamed to Iceland to assist USS Aeolus (ARC-3) in a special project.

The tug returned to Norfolk on 13 July 1967 and resumed east coast-West Indies operations for the remaining four years of her career.