 After visiting ports in northern Europe during a midshipman cruise conducted in the summer of 1955, she resumed her training duties with the Fleet Sonar School and normal operations for another year.She joined another midshipman cruise, in July and August 1956; this time to Panama and the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.On 31 October 1956, "Sturtevant" entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for conversion to a radar picket destroyer escort ship.