"Picuda" steamed by way of Norfolk, Virginia, and Nassau, Bahamas, to arrive at Key West, Florida, on 17 September. She was assigned to duty as a training ship for Submarine Refit Training Group and based her operations for that command at Key West through September 1959. This duty included almost daily exercises in the Key West operating area, visits to American ports on the Gulf of Mexico, and periodic training cruises to the waters of Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti. This service was intervened by special cruises from Key West and two tours of duty in the Mediterranean Sea. On her first special cruise, she operated off Norfolk from 24 April to 20 May 1954, participating in anti-submarine development exercises. On her second special cruise, she cleared Key West on 3 September and set course for waters of Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. She arrived at Londonderry Port, Northern Ireland, on 24 September for joint maneuvers with ships of the Royal Navy, then arrived at Gibraltar on 29 October to join units of the Sixth Fleet for Operation "Bright Bonfire." She returned to Londonderry Port 14 November to resume hunter-killer and other anti-submarine warfare tactics with units of the British Fleet, and cleared that port 25 November to resume her training duties at Key West, 11 December. She again sailed from Key West 6 January 1958 and arrived at Gibraltar 18 January. Her tour with the Sixth Fleet included participation in operation "ASCENDEX" and visits to the ports of Palma and Barcelona, Spain; Port de Monaco; and Genoa, Italy. She sailed from Gibraltar on 18 August and conducted hunter-killer exercises with destroyers in waters off Cuba and Jamaica before returning to Key West 11 October.