The destroyer CONE was commissioned in August1945. Six weeks after commissioning, she sailed for Europe. In 1948, CONE served as a United Nations ship flying the UN flag in service of Count Bernadotte, international mediator in the Palestine dispute. That fall she crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time. While in the Mediterranean in 1951, the U.S. and British ambassadors to Greece used CONE for a diplomatic call on the Mount Athos Monastaries. On 9 September of that year in Venice, Winston Churchill visited the ship, his first visit to a U.S. man-of-war since Yalta in 1945. In August 1953, CONE sailed for Korea, patrollling the coast until February, 1954. She crossed the equator and headed home via the Suez in 1956 due to the crisis there. In 1958, she deployed to the Med to participate in the Lebanon landings.

In October 1959, CONE was a part of "Project Mercury." During September and October 1960, she participated in NATO exercises above the Arctic Circle. CONE was a unit of the group which recovered the chimpanzee "Ham" after his space ride in January 1961. In 1962, CONE participated in both the Sheppard and Glenn manned orbital space flights. From March 1962 until January 1963 CONE underwent FRAM I modernization in New York Naval Shipyard.

On 28 August 1963, CONE fired the first ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket) in the Mediterranean at a target submarine. On 21 October CONE rescued seven Indian seamen who had been adrift on a raft for fifteen days in the Indian Ocean. During a seven month tour in WestPac in 1967-1968, CONE fired her guns in anger for the first time.

In November 1972, CONE returned to Viet Nam, earning a Meritorious Unit Commendation and a Combat Action Ribbon. She had the distinction of conducting the final surface strike mission on New Year's Eve and fired the last surface ordnance for Seventh Fleet that year. In September 1973, CONE became a member of the Naval Reserve Force and participated in a North Atlantic cruise in 1974.

In 1975, CONE received the Battle "E" and three departmental awards. The following year brought the "E" and six awards. In 1977, she underwent refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 1978, CONE traveled to Washington, DC and New Orleans, LA for Fleet Exercises and to train reservists. In the first half of 1979, CONE operated extensively in the Caribbean. She underwent overhaul in 1979-1980.

CONE is homeported in Charleston, SC, and is normally the flagship for Commander, Destroyer Squadron 34, Naval Reserve Force. Naval Reservists comprise one third of her crew and embark on weekend each month and two weeks each year for training