After shifting to Nouméa, New Caledonia, and back to Espiritu Santo, Whitehurst joined Osterhaus (DE-164) and Acree (DE-167) on 22 March to escort oilers Kankakee (AO-39), Escambia (AO-80), and Atascosa (AO-66).

The destroyer escort subsequently joined Wilkes (DD-441), Nicholson (DD-442), and Swanson (DD-443), to screen echelon H-2 as it steamed toward Bosnic, Biak, in the Schouten Islands, for the landings there.

While Bull (DE-693) picked up survivors, Whitehurst detected a submerged submarine probably I-45 on her sonar, about 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) from the site of Eversole′s sinking.

Whitehurst resumed her search at 07:20 and noted a large amount of oil, wood and other debris, some of which her motor whaleboat recovered at 10°10′N 127°28′E / 10.167°N 127.467°E / 10.167; 127.467 (I-45), and headed back to Kossol Roads in the Palaus with TU 77.7.1.

On 6 April, while on patrol station off Kerama Retto, she drove off an enemy aircraft that had attacked the cargo vessel SS Pierre.

At 1430, four "Val" dive-bombers approached from the south, one detached itself from the group and headed for Whitehurst and commenced a steep dive, two others also attacked, one from the starboard beam and the other from astern, this aircraft was claimed shot down.

Returning to the continental United States in April 1946, Whitehurst was decommissioned on 27 November 1946 and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs, Florida, in January 1947.

On 3 August 1952,[1] Whitehurst collided with the submarine USS Bugara (SS-331) during antisubmarine warfare exercises south of Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaii.

After a period of local operations out of Pearl Harbor, Whitehurst headed back to the Far East and touched at Guam, Formosa, Hong Kong, and Sasebo, Japan, before representing the United States Navy at the graduation ceremonies of the Republic of Korea Naval Academy on 10 April.

Upon completion of filming, Whitehurst operated off Oahu until September, when she was ordered to Seattle, Washington, for duty as a training ship with the 13th Naval District making an extended cruise to Guaymas, Mexico, in November 1957.

After an overhaul from February to April 1958, Whitehurst returned to training duties, becoming a Group II ASW reserve ship in July.

After a period of training in the Hawaiian area, Whitehurst departed Pearl Harbor on 10 February 1962 for deployment to the Western Pacific.

In subsequent years, Whitehurst visited San Diego, California; Bellingham, Port Angeles, Everett, Washington; and Esquimalt, British Columbia.

On 17 January 1965 while operating in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, steaming in fog off the Vancouver narrows, Whitehurst collided with the Norwegian freighter SS Hoyanger.

The destroyer escort suffered a five-foot gash in her stern above the waterline while the freighter had three feet of scraped bow plates.