Unexpectedly ordered to Batum, Georgia, Whipple departed Samsun on 6 July and made 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) to reach her destination the next day.

[clarification needed] Whipple then shifted south for a brief cruise along the Levantine coast during which she visited Beirut and Damascus, Syria and Port Said, Egypt, before she returned to Constantinople on 18 August.

While underway on 19 October, Whipple sighted distress signals from Greek steamer Thetis and proceeded to the stricken vessel's assistance, as she lay aground off Constanţa.

The citation lauded Lieutenant Commander Bernard's display of initiative and his excellent handling of the ship in shoal waters with a heavy sea running.

Whipple convoyed the disabled American steamer SS Haddon into Constantinople and later fueled at Constanţa where she learned that Russian Bolshevik troops were approaching the Crimea.

In addition to Whipple, cruiser St. Louis and two destroyers, Overton and Humphreys, stood by to evacuate selected individuals bearing passes from Admiral McCully.

As her last boatload pushed off from shore, Bolshevik troops reached the main square and began firing on the fleeing White Russians; Whipple had completed the mission just in time.

After disembarking the refugees at Constantinople, Whipple resumed her station ship and mail carrying duties with the Near Eastern Naval Detachment and continued the task through the end of 1920 and into the spring of 1921.

On 2 May 1921, the destroyer, along with her division mates, sailed for the Far East, transiting the Suez Canal and called at Bombay, India; Colombo, Ceylon; Batavia, Java; Singapore, Straits Settlements; and Saigon, French Indochina.

For the next four years, the destroyer served in the Asiatic Fleet, "showing the flag" and standing ready to protect American lives and property in strife-torn China.

During this time, Whipple put ashore a landing force in Nicaragua to protect American lives and property threatened by the banditry and unrest.

She resumed the routine common to ships of her type with the Fleet: winter exercises in the Philippine Islands and summer maneuvers out of Tsingtao, China, with cruises to Chinese coastal ports in the interim.

The visit, the first by American men-of-war since the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1933, lasted until 1 August when the five ships headed back to China.

The Japanese captured most of the major coastal cities and ports and those along the lower Yangtze, and opportunities for trouble multiplied for the western nations still trying to maintain their interests in China.

By September 1939, Whipple was serving as station ship at Amoy, her landing force ashore and Captain John T. G. Stapler, Commander, South China Patrol, embarked on board.

At 2355 on 3 September 1939, Whipple's deck log noted that France had declared war on Germany, two days after German troops invaded Poland.

As she headed for Tjilatjap, on the south coast of Java, she was struck a glancing blow by the Royal Netherlands Navy light cruiser De Ruyter.

At 1640 on 26 February, Whipple and sister ship Edsall departed Tjilatjap to rendezvous with the seaplane tender Langley off the south coast of Java.

Making contact with her at 0629 on 27 February, the destroyers took up screening positions to escort the vulnerable ship and its vital cargo of 32 P-40 fighters and U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) personnel to Tjilatjap.

Langley's evasive maneuvers were not sufficient to prevent the Japanese hitting her with several bombs at 1212, setting the former aircraft carrier on fire and causing flooding.

After interrupting the proceedings to conduct an unsuccessful attack on a submarine thought to be nearby, she returned to the task and continued the search until she had received 231 men from the oiler.

Subsequently sailing to Melbourne, Australia, and arriving on 23 March, Whipple operated with Australian and New Zealand Navy warships on convoy escort duties along the Great Barrier Reef until 2 May.

Together with sister ship Alden, Whipple departed Pearl Harbor on 8 June for San Francisco, escorting an eastward-bound convoy to the U.S. west coast, arriving on the 18th.

During a yard availability at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the destroyer's topside weight was cut down as 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns replaced two banks of her torpedo tubes.

From Guantanamo, the destroyer escorted a convoy to Trinidad but returned to the Cuban base on 19 June before heading north to the New York Navy Yard for voyage repairs.

Later departing New York on 10 July, Whipple escorted a group of ships which rendezvoused with a convoy bound for Casablanca, French Morocco, and Gibraltar.

After replenishing at Casablanca, the group returned to the high seas and searched convoy lanes for signs of German submarines until arriving at Norfolk on 16 February.

For the remainder of 1944 and into the spring of 1945, Whipple performed convoy escort duties off the U.S. east coast, across the Atlantic Ocean to Casablanca, and occasionally into the Caribbean Sea.