Soon after commissioning, "S-32", assigned to Submarine Division 17 and homeported at San Pedro, California, was ordered to New London, Connecticut. She was decommissioned there on 25 September 1922 and, after engineering alterations by the prime contractor, the Electric Boat Company, and the engineering sub-contractor, the New London Ship and Engine Company, she was recommissioned on 21 February 1923. Temporary duty with Division 11 then took her south to the Caribbean Sea and the Panama Canal Zone for winter exercises with the Fleet, after which she rejoined the S-boats of her division, now designated Division 16, and returned to San Pedro.