 Following shakedown, "Recovery" operated briefly out of San Diego, then on 9 August got underway for the Panama Canal Zone.Homeported at Naval Station Rodman from her arrival on 30 August, until September 1953, the ship performed salvage, repair, and towing operations in the Canal Zone and the Caribbean; provided men and equipment for underwater projects of the Army Engineers; served as a training ship for Naval Reservists of the 15th Naval District; and, after April 1952, added a second-class diving school to her duties.Transferred to the east coast in October 1953, "Recovery" arrived at her new homeport, Norfolk, Virginia, on the 11th only to depart soon after for her first tour in northern latitudes in support of MSTS North Atlantic and Arctic resupply programs.