the warship was fitted out, conducted shakedown, and made a cruise to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The spring of 1952 brought a round of exercises, notably "Convex III". That summer, she went into the yard at Philadelphia for overhaul. Refresher training at Guantanamo Bay followed, and then the destroyer resumed normal operations which she continued until the beginning of 1953. On 7 January, she put to sea from Norfolk, Va. for her first deployment with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. That May, after visits to northern European ports, Watts returned to Norfolk and began operations in the western Atlantic. Her assignment for almost a year centered upon antisubmarine warfare training with the Hunter/Killer Force, Atlantic Fleet. During that time, she made at least one cruise to the West Indies and visited Kingston, Jamaica, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her tour of duty with the Hunter/Killer Force ended on 12 April 1954 when she entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for another overhaul. The destroyer completed that yard period on 7 July and conducted refresher training in the vicinity of Guantanamo Bay from late July to mid-September, when she resumed duty out of Norfolk. That assignment continued until December at which time Watts was reassigned to the Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet. After a voyage which took her to Guantanamo Bay and Havana, Cuba, as well as through the Panama Canal, she arrived in her new home port—Long Beach, Calif.—on 28 January 1955. Between January 1955 and December 1957, the destroyer alternated three deployments to the western Pacific with operations out of Long Beach along the western coast of the United States. During each of her tours of duty with the 7th Fleet, Watts divided her time between escort duty with the carriers of TF 77 and assignments with the Taiwan Strait patrol. Overhauls, type training, and refresher training filled her schedule when she returned to the west coast. 1958–1964 In December 1957, the destroyer entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for what was to have been her decommissioning overhaul. In June 1958, however, a reprieve arrived in the form of orders to shift home port to Seattle, Wash., and become a Naval Reserve training ship as the flagship of Reserve Escort Squadron 1 (ResCortRon 1). Watts served with the reserve training program for almost four years, from June 1958 to March 1962. Throughout the entire period, the Seattle-Tacoma area remained her