Whetstone supported the American occupation and assistance efforts in not only Chinese waters but Japanese as well, the ship touching at Shanghai once more, as well as at Sasebo and Kobe, Japan, before she set course for the Palaus on 15 April 1947.

Reaching Pearl Harbor on 12 September, Whetstone remained there only long enough to drop off the two self-propelled derricks and take aboard a garbage lighter, YG-54, before she was underway again; her destination: San Diego.

Her sojourn in mothballs was a short one, though, for the North Korean assault on South Korea, hurled across the 38th parallel on 25 June 1950, caused a drastic naval build-up.

Whetstone loaded a special crane-equipped utility craft (LCU) at Inchon — the port at which the LSD had arrived, from Sasebo, Japan, on 12 June – and sailed for Ch'o-do island on 19 July.

She also took part in Operation Passage to Freedom, the movement of non-communist refugee North Vietnamese to the South after the partition of the colony of French Indochina in observance of the Geneva accords that ended the French-Viet Minh hostilities.

For the remainder of the 1950s and into the 1960s, Whetstone deployed regularly to the Far East and WestPac areas, there participating in numerous amphibious exercises, maintaining herself in a high state of readiness.

In April 1961, for example, she rescued two San Diego businessmen from their capsized sailboat off Point Loma, California; that July, she went to the aid of the burning merchantman SS Steel Traveler in Inchon harbor.

Later that year, in October, November, and December, Whetstone deployed to the Atlantic and Caribbean areas, participating in the "quarantine" operations ordered in the wake of the discovery of offensive Soviet ballistic missiles on Cuban soil.

Over the next few years, Whetstone's regular WestPac tours were enlivened by operations that reflected the increasing tempo of American involvement in the war in South Vietnam.

From 7 August to 2 October, Whetstone steamed as part of TF 76 in the South China Sea, earning the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for her contingency operations.

Whetstone departed San Diego on 11 February 1966, bound, ultimately, for South Vietnam with elements of the 3rd Marine Division (3d MarDiv) embarked for transportation to Okinawa.

She arrived at her destination on 8 March, disembarked her passengers, and sailed for Japan, touching briefly at Yokosuka before she returned to Okinawa to embark elements of the 5th MarDiv for transportation to Vietnam.

Reaching Chu Lai on 27 March, Whetstone offloaded her passengers brought from Okinawa and embarked different Marine elements for transport up the Vietnamese coast to the Huế–Phu Bai area of operations.

Those craft served as the keys to keeping open the flow of logistics onto the beach from the many merchant ships at anchor in Da Nang harbor.

Whetstone hauled a load of Army LCMs to Cam Ranh Bay on 31 July and then headed for Japanese waters, reaching Sasebo on 7 August for an eight-day port visit.

The dock landing ship then returned briefly to Hong Kong – the weather proved more favorable that time than previously – before she sailed for Da Nang to commence the last major assignment of that WestPac tour.

Following her return to San Diego on 2 September, the dock landing ship completed the remainder of her refresher and amphibious training and prepared for her WestPac deployment date of 31 October 1967.

The first was Operation Fortress Ridge (21–24 December 1967) — SLF Bravo made an unopposed landing and swept through the marshy, sandy region north of Cửa Việt Base.

Encountering several pockets of enemy resistance, the Marines called in air strikes, naval gunfire support and the fire from helicopter gunships – as well as artillery – to subdue the resistors.

Members of SLF Bravo went ashore from landing craft and helicopters to clear the Cửa Việt River region of the enemy troops that had recently preyed upon Navy coastal convoys resupplying Marine activities along the coasts.

Besides the amphibious operations, Whetstone made two hazardous coastwise supply runs – one to Huế and the other to Đông Hà Combat Base — utilizing LCMs embarked in the ship's well deck.