Nicholson deployed with the Enterprise carrier battle group, with Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW 3) embarked, for a scheduled six-month deployment on 6 November 1998, and to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier battle group in Operation Southern Watch.
Nicholson was decommissioned 20 December 2002; stricken 6 April 2004; and sunk as a target 30 July 2004.