On 31 October 1956, "Sturtevant" entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for conversion to a radar picket destroyer escort ship. The conversion process lasted until 5 October 1957, when she was recommissioned as DER-239. On 7 February 1958, she departed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Pacific Ocean, calling at Newport, Rhode Island; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Rodman in the Panama Canal Zone; Acapulco, Mexico; and San Diego, California, before arriving in Pearl Harbor on 18 March. Upon completion of further training in Hawaii, she became one of the original ships of the Pacific Early Warning Barrier.