Following shakedown training near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the summer, Van Voorhis reported at Newport, Rhode Island, for duty with Escort Squadron 14 (CortRon 14).

She supported the Marines who landed in Lebanon in response to President Camille Chamoun's request for help during a crisis precipitated by Arab nationalist factions in reaction to his administration's pro-Western policies and its adherence to the Eisenhower Doctrine.

Upon her return, the warship operated along the east coast until February 1959 when she joined the other ships of her squadron in a three-month cruise to South America.

In the autumn of 1962, when the United States subjected Cuba to a quarantine in order to keep offensive missiles from the strategically situated island, Van Voorhis moved to Mayport, Florida, to support the blockade-type operation.

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, she moved north, up the eastern coast of Africa, and visited Lourenco Marques, Mozambique; Diego Suarez, Malagasy Republic; and Mombasa, Kenya.

During the latter part of the month, the ship entered the Boston Naval Shipyard for a six-week availability during which she received control equipment associated with the Drone Antisubmarine Helicopter (DASH) system.

The installation was completed early in March, and Van Voorhis departed Boston on the 9th to participate in the annual "Springboard" exercises conducted in the Caribbean.

In August 1966, Van Voorhis rendezvoused with the destroyer escort Hammerberg, guided missile frigate Leahy, and submarine Requin off Trinidad to participate in Operation "Unitas VII" through November.

In January 1970, Van Voorhis began preparations for conversion to a research and development platform to test the Interim Towed Array Surveillance System (ITASS).

Over the next month, her new equipment was installed, and her DASH hangar was modified to provide a berthing area for the additional crew members necessitated by the ITASS.

Van Voorhis completed the conversion early in March and, for the next four months, she conducted a series of tests on the experimental equipment in the vicinity of Guantanamo Bay, then in the Tongue of the ocean off Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

After a liberty call at Palma de Mallorca and change of operational control at Rota, Spain, Van Voorhis set out to recross the Atlantic on 26 November and arrived in Newport on 6 December.