After arriving at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba, on 3 September, the ocean escort devoted the next six weeks to a feverish series of drills and exercises to prepare for duty in the Atlantic Fleet. On 8 October, Truett completed shakedown training and sailed for home. After a brief stop at St. Following local operations in the Hampton Roads area and repairs at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Truett got underway in April to conduct further tests and to train some 40 officers attending the Surface Warfare School.
During her stay at Norfolk, the Navy re-classified the ship as a frigate on 1 July and redesignated her FF Twenty days later, the frigate left Norfolk and set a course for the Panama Canal. En route, she conducted exercises with units of the Colombian Navy. Truett transited the canal on 8 August and headed down the western coast of South America.
In the course of the deployment, she visited many ports and rounded Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. After conducting exercises with the navies of the east coast nations of South America, she made a brief stop at Trinidad before returning home to Norfolk on 8 December. During the first two months of , she resumed normal operations out of Norfolk. Departing Norfolk on 14 June, Truett spent the next six months engaging in two major fleet exercises and visiting 20 ports from Norway to Portugal.
During the early part of the deployment, she shadowed the new Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev , which was en route from the Black Sea to Murmansk on its maiden cruise, off the west coast of Scotland. The fleet frigate returned to Norfolk on 17 December and spent the remainder of the year enjoying a period of leave and a tender availability. The greater part of was spent in priming the ship for deployment to the Mediterranean late in the year.
During this workup period, Truett engaged in two major Atlantic Fleet exercises and underwent six inspections or qualifications. On 27 September, she departed for the Mediterranean and operations with the 6th Fleet which took her into the new year. Her operations there included a day, continuous at-sea period. The summer was spent conducting operations off the east coast, and the fleet frigate then proceeded to Braswell Shipyard, Boston, for a regular overhaul which commenced on 27 September.
