For the next seven years, "Willard Keith" remained with DesRon 22, operating from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. She participated in a variety of goodwill missions, midshipmen cruises, and the usual training assignments in gunnery, ASW, and the like. She also participated in the "quarantine" operations in the autumn of 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The ship took part in the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959—during which "Willard Keith" escorted the royal yacht with Queen Elizabeth II on board.