From mid-July 1946 to mid January 1947, the ship operated as part of US Atlantic Mine Fleet, with Norfolk, Virginia as home port.

Waxsaw served at Argentia Naval Base, Newfoundland replacing mooring buoys with larger units from beginning of September thru mid-December 1946 when severe winter weather forced termination of activity from whence ship returned to home port.

Based there at the time of the outbreak of the Korean War in the summer of 1950, Waxsaw not only took part in extensive netlaying operations in Hampton Roads, Virginia, but also towed targets and participated in various training exercises in ensuing months.

For the next nine years, Waxsaw operated with the Atlantic Fleet off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from Nova Scotia to Key West, Florida.

During those years, Waxsaw performed a variety of service functions; participated in mine-hunting exercises; laid nets and buoys during U.S. Atlantic Fleet amphibious exercises including amphibious maneuvers off Onslow Beach, North Carolina; cleared objects from the channel entrance at Hampton Roads; and even briefly operated at Charleston as a salvage vessel equipped with compressors, a recompression chamber, and other deep-sea diving gear.