Wadleigh patrolled off the Japanese coast for two weeks, before she departed Nipponese waters on 16 September and proceeded via Eniwetok to Saipan in company with and for air group replacements. The destroyer returned to Tokyo Bay after a week at Saipan and arrived on 13 October, escorting and Lexington. Departing Japanese waters on 20 October, bound for the Hawaiian Islands, Wadleigh carried a load of men eligible for discharge upon their return to the United States. After a 48-hour layover in the Hawaiian Islands, she pressed on for San Francisco, arriving on 5 November 1945. She commenced a preinactivation overhaul on 5 December and sailed for San Diego, California, on 27 January 1946, for inactivation. The destroyer was placed out of commission, in reserve, in the San Diego group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet, in January 1947. 1951 – 1962 Wadleigh remained in reserve until she was reactivated during the Korean War. On 3 October 1951, Wadleigh was recommissioned at San Diego. [[File:USS Wadleigh (DD-689) engine compartment personnel, circa in the early 1950s.jpg|thumb|USS Wadleighs engine compartment crew photographed in 1952.]] She departed San Diego on 4 January 1952, bound for duty with the Atlantic Fleet. She transited the Panama Canal on 14 January—in company with , , , and —and, upon arrival at her new home port of Newport, Rhode Island, became flagship for Destroyer Division 342. After participating in various Fleet exercises, Wadleigh arrived at Pensacola, Florida, on 17 August, to commence four weeks of plane-guard duty for . She rescued three downed aviators from the Gulf of Mexico during this tour. Next, the destroyer sailed north for an overhaul at the Boston Naval Shipyard—during which time the ship received a battery of 3 inch guns—replacing the older 40-millimeter mounts. On 3 May 1954, Wadleigh departed Newport, bound via the Panama Canal, Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Guam for the Western Pacific (WestPac), and arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, on 7 June 1954. After initially operating in the Philippine Islands, the destroyer shifted to the waters off the east coast of Korea, assisting in monitoring the Armistice Agreement reached at Panmunjom the year before. While in Subic Bay, Wadleigh was put on alert and ordered to rendezvous with Task Group 70.2 (TG 70.2). Once she joined with the group, TG 70.2 proceeded to the southern coast of Formosa in a precautionary move by the United States to forestall possible Chinese