Reactivated As A Radar Picket Ship
In December 1950, the Navy decided to reactivate the ship and convert her into a radar picket escort ship. Strickland was towed to Norfolk, Virginia, on 29 March 1951 for conversion. She was recommissioned as DER-333 on 2 February 1952. After shakedown off Guantánamo Bay, the destroyer returned to Norfolk for availability from 1 to 27 June; and then reported to Escort Squadron 16 at Newport, Rhode Island, where she began duty with the Eastern Air Defense Command. With her new and complex electronics installation, Strickland worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. Air Force in a network of radar stations that were scanning the coasts of the United States. Operating from her homeport, the ship served at various picket stations on the North Atlantic seaboard until October 1955 when she was overhauled at the New York Naval Shipyard. With updated radar equipment, Strickland held training off Guantanamo Bay; then returned to Newport on 18 March 1956 for assignment to the picket line. During the summer of 1956, she had the distinction of being the first DER to man a regularly assigned picket station on the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line. She continued her picket duties in the Atlantic until July 1957.
On 15 July, Strickland, with four other DERs, stood out of Newport en route to the Pacific. They arrived at Pearl Harbor, her new homeport, on 18 August. The ship then began patrolling picket stations on the Pacific extension of the DEW line. From 2 October 1957 to 24 March 1958, she was in Pearl Harbor. After installation of stronger radar and communications systems, she returned to her former duties on the barrier stations in the Pacific Ocean area until ordered to return to the United States for inactivation.
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