In February 1804, Wren volunteered for the expedition to destroy the frigate USS Philadelphia, captured by the Tripolitan pirates on 31 October 1803 after grounding on an uncharted reef off Tripoli.

Under the command of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr., Wren and 68 other sailors and marines entered Tripoli harbor on the night of 16 February, in the ketch USS Intrepid and succeeded in setting fire to the former American ship during the First Barbary War.

Departing Okinawa on 18 June, she arrived at Leyte in the Philippines three days later and remained there until 1 July when she joined units of TF 38 for the final series of carrier-based aerial attacks on Japan.

Wren spent the remaining weeks of the war at sea with TF 38 supporting the carriers while their planes struck the Japanese homeland.

On 26 August, Wren entered Tokyo Bay with other elements of the 3d Fleet to begin the occupation of Japan and to prepare for the formal surrender ceremony at which she was present on 2 September.

During the latter months of 1951, she conducted standardization and vibration tests under the auspices of the Bureau of Ships and its research facility at Carderock, Md., the David Taylor Model Basin.

The fast carriers conducted air operations there and in the Yellow Sea, and Wren provided screen and plane-guard services to them between 10 October and 26 November.

Following that assignment, she joined the Australian carrier HMAS Sydney and provided similar services until mid-December when she returned to Japan at Sasebo for the Christmas holidays.

She served along the Korean coast carrying out cease-fire surveillance missions with TF 95 until 1 February, when she returned to Sasebo to prepare for the voyage home.

She departed Japan on 11 February and, taking a westward route through the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, completed a circumnavigation of the globe when she arrived in Norfolk on 9 April.

During her 1957 Mediterranean deployment, the ship served with the Mid East Force in the Indian Ocean and participated in Operation Crescent with units of the Pakistani Navy.

Wren appeared in the 1959 movie, Operation Petticoat while on a port call to Naval Station Key West, Florida.