While the troops stormed ashore there, however, Waldron and the carriers had returned north to suppress enemy air power on Formosa during the actual assault.

That same day, she steamed through Bashi Channel into the South China Sea with TF 38 to begin a series of raids on Japan's inner defenses.

First on the agenda came Cam Ranh Bay in Indochina, where Admiral Halsey hoped to find battleships Ise and Hyūga.

After fueling on 13 January, TF 38, with Waldron still in the screen, carried out air attacks on Hainan Island and on Hong Kong.

The task force then began its retirement to Iwo Jima, there to provide air support for the following day's invasion.

On the night of 17 and 18 February, Waldron's task group encountered several small Japanese patrol craft.

Upon arrival off Iwo Jima on 25 February, Waldron reported to TF 51 for temporary duty with the transport screen.

Ten days later, Waldron exited the lagoon once again on her way back to the Japanese home islands with the fast carriers.

She arrived in Japanese home waters on 18 March, and the carriers began launching strikes on Kyushu airfields that same day.

Waldron was one of the ships assigned to cover the severely damaged carrier during the initial stage of her retirement from action.

Antiaircraft action continued throughout the three days Waldron provided escort for Franklin; and, on the night of 20 and 21 March, the destroyer scored a kill of her own when her radar-directed main battery brought down a Japanese Yokosuka D4Y "Judy."

During that time, she was engaged in a number of antiaircraft actions and participated in two shore bombardments of air installations on Minami Daito Shima.

The one antiaircraft action which resulted in a definite kill for the destroyer occurred on 14 May, although she claimed four sure assists in addition during that period.

On 26 May, she cleared the Ryukyu Islands with her task group and, on 1 June, arrived at San Pedro Bay, Leyte, for a much-needed availability.

For the remainder of World War II, she steamed with the fast carriers during the final strikes on the Japanese home islands.

Early in May, she began an extended repair period at the Boston Naval Shipyard and did not return to active service until the end of the year.

For the next two years, she cruised the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies as a training platform for reservists of the 8th Naval District.

She cruised the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, making a number of port visits, until 28 January 1950 when she retransited the Straits of Gibraltar.

Steaming via Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean, Waldron completed a circumnavigation of the globe at Norfolk on 4 June.

In June 1959, the ship entered the Great Lakes for Operation Inland Seas,[1] a celebration honoring the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In June 1962, the destroyer began a fleet rehabilitation and modernization (FRAM) overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to update her antisubmarine capabilities.

At the conclusion of those alterations, the warship returned to normal operations and completed her decade of deployments and duty in home waters.

Patrolling near the 17th parallel, she provided gunfire support for the III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF) during operations ashore during the Vietnam War.

On 9 October, she resumed naval gunfire support duties in Vietnamese waters, this time off the coast of the II Corps tactical zone.

A week later, she headed back to Yankee Station with TG 77.8 but parted company with the group on the 18th for a stop at Subic Bay.

Waldron returned to Vietnamese waters on 24 November and took up naval gunfire support duties once again off the coast of the II Corps zone.