Following her shakedown and initial operations on the Atlantic seaboard, Wood County was deployed to the Mediterranean for the first time in the summer of 1960, as part of Amphibious Squadron (PhibRon) 2.

In addition, the ship also visited Valencia, Rota, and Barcelona, Spain; Messina and La Spezia, Italy; Cannes, France; and Piles and Athens, Greece before she returned to Little Creek, Virginia, her home port, in February 1962.

Later that month, the tank landing ship participated in a large scale demonstration exercise off Little Creek, an evolution witnessed by President John F. Kennedy and the Shah of Iran.

Following upkeep and type training evolutions, Wood County shifted to Davisville, Rhode Island to load Mobile Construction Battalion (CB or SeaBee) 4.

That summer, in August, Wood County participated in a special balloon-launch in a joint Navy-Air Force project before undergoing overhaul and upkeep at Charleston and Jacksonville, respectively.

There, a coup to return the ousted former president, Juan Bosch, to power, had developed into a bloody civil war when communist elements took control of the pro-Bosch movement to turn it toward their own ends.

Upon completion of this task, Wood County remained in the vicinity, on patrol duty in a stand-by status, until she returned north and put into Little Creek on 30 June.

Wood County escorted Naval Ocean going tugs across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean; and lifted the 3rd Battalion, 8th Engineers, to Rota, Spain, before she participated in a combined amphibious assault with French units at Lovo Santo, Corsica in November 1966.

On her return voyage to the United States in May, 1967 Wood County offloaded Marines and equipment at Morehead City and then entered the Baltimore Shipyard for an overhaul which lasted from June, 1967 to September, 1967.

While Wood County remained pier side at Little Creek for the greater part of 1969, her crew labored to preserve and maintain the ship and conducted training on board and on shore.

On 2 September 1969, Wood County proceeded to the Home Brothers Shipyard at Newport News to have the six Cooper Bessemer engines replaced by a like number of Fairbanks-Morse diesels.

From 16 to 26 October, the tank landing ship provided transportation and berthing for representatives of many amphibious type commands at the Philadelphia Naval Base for participation in a firefighting school conducted there at the time.

The coming deployment would be especially significant, as Wood County had been assigned the task of support ship to the product of the Navy's newest developments in hydrofoil technology, the gunboat Tucumcari (PGH-2).

On 22 March 1971, Tucumcari was deck-loaded piggyback on board Wood County; and, three days later, the tank landing ship sailed from Little Creek, bound for the first stop on the special demonstration deployment.

Then, after a transit of the Kiel Canal, she stopped at Rosyth, Scotland; Brest and Toulon, France; Naples, Brindisi, La Spezia, and Augusta, Sicily; Athens, Greece; and Gölcük, Turkey.

Wood County was berthed in the James River, part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet, in temporary custody of the Maritime Administration, from 1972 to July 1977.