1970s
For the remainder of 1970 and during the first seven months of 1971, William V. Pratt operated out of Mayport along the East Coast and in the West Indies. Her 1971 deployment began early in August, but it consisted of a cruise to northern European waters for hunter/ killer exercises and visits to northern European ports rather than a Mediterranean cruise. She returned to Mayport on 8 October and, on the 29th, began converting her main propulsion plant to the use of Navy distillate fuel. She completed that modification on 17 January 1972 and resumed local operations until 18 February when she got underway for duty with the 6th Fleet. The warship participated in the usual schedule of training evolutions, multiship exercises, and port visits through the spring and early summer. On 28 June, after turnover ceremonies at Rota, the guided missile frigate headed home. She reentered Mayport on 8 July and began post-deployment stand-down and preparations for her decommissioning incident to a major modernization overhaul. In September, she moved to Philadelphia for the antiaircraft warfare (AAW) modernization overhaul. William V. Pratt was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
William V. Pratt was recommissioned at Philadelphia on 6 October 1973, Comdr. Rodney B. McDaniel in command. On the 23rd, she departed Philadelphia, bound for her new home port of Charleston, South Carolina She arrived at her destination on the 26th. The guided missile frigate conducted post-overhaul shakedown training in December and resumed 2nd Fleet operations early in 1974. Those operations continued until 23 September at which time she departed Charleston to deploy to the Mediterranean once again. She changed operational control to the 6th Fleet at Naval Station Rota, Spain, on 2 October. The following day, the warship entered the Mediterranean proper and began operations as a unit of the screen for USS Independence. For the next five months, William V. Pratt conducted exercises with carriers Independence and USS Saratoga. She ranged the length and breadth of the "middle sea", making port visits and performing the usual training missions. On 8 March 1975, she conducted turnover at Rota and got underway for Charleston. The warship reentered her home port on the 19th and, after about a month of post-deployment stand-down for leave and upkeep, she resumed normal 2nd Fleet operations. Those missions brought an NROTC midshipman cruise in May and readiness exercises in June. On 1 July 1975, William V. Pratt was reclassified a guided missile destroyer and received the designation DDG-44. On 14 August, she departed Charleston to participate in UNITAS XVI, a series of multinational exercises conducted annually with units of various Latin American navies. Those exercises occupied her time for most of what remained of 1975. On 8 December, the warship arrived back in Charleston and began holiday leave and upkeep as well as preparations for a restricted availability.
The ship entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard on 15 December and remained there until 29 March 1976. She returned to Charleston on 7 April and resumed normal 2nd Fleet duty. That assignment - broken only by her participation in the International Naval Review held at New York on Independence Day - continued through the summer of 1976. On 4 October, William V. Pratt departed Charleston in company with USS Jesse L. Brown, USS Julius A. Furer, and USS Valdez for another tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. The ships arrived in Rota on 14 October, completed turnover briefings, and entered the Mediterranean on the 16th. The warship served in the screen of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt for the bulk of her 6th Fleet assignment. Once again, she visited ports and conducted exercises throughout the Mediterranean. That tour of duty with the 6th Fleet lasted until the beginning of April 1977. After turnover at Rota, the guided missile destroyer got under way on 11 April to return to the United States. She moored at Charleston once again on 21 April and, on the 27th, entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard for a 10-week availability. She completed repairs on 8 July and resumed 2nd Fleet training operations out of Charleston. That employment continued through the end of 1977 and into 1978. On 11 July 1978, she departed Charleston for another deployment to South American waters to participate in UNITAS XIX. During that cruise, she completed a circumnavigation of the South American continent while engaged in a series of readiness exercises with Latin American navies. She returned to Charleston on 3 December and spent the remaining days of the year in port.
William V. Pratt earned one battle star during the Vietnam War.
The rest of the '70s saw her return once to the Mediterranean and make another UNITAS cruise, this time voyaging completely around South America. She received further combat systems updates in 1979-80, operated with the Sixth Fleet and visited Northern European waters in 1981, and took part in Lebanon Crisis actions in 1982, including providing gunfire support for U.S. Marines at Beirut. She was the escort ship that escorted Yassar Arafat out of Lebanon to Tunisia.
William V. Pratt had three more major deployments during the last six years of the decade, operating in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Red Seas in 1984, the Mediterranean alone in 1987 and again in 1989. Bracketing her 1989 Sixth Fleet cruise were major exercises off Norway and in the North Sea - English Channel area. In 1990 she worked with the U.S. Coast Guard on law enforcement service in the Caribbean Sea. William V. Pratt's final overseas tour was an important one, involving participation in the short, but intense war that drove Iraq out of Kuwait during the first months of 1991.
William V. Pratt was decommissioned on 30 September 1991 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 November 1992 and sold for scrapping on 14 September 1995 to Transforma Marine of Brownsville, Tx for $49,600. William V. Pratt was dismantled shortly afterwards.
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