"Blas de Lezo", when it served as in the United States Navy, was the ship in charge of recovery from the sea in 1962 of the first American astronaut to orbit the earth John Glenn upon his return. The vessel also participated in the Spanish evacuation of the Spanish Sahara in 1975, after the green march during the Western Sahara War. "Blas de Lezo" was part of the fleet in control of the strait during the Desert Storm operation in 1991, at which time, due to the shortage of escorts in the Navy, some of these ships operated alongside the Alpha Group, carrying out maritime control tasks in the Eastern Mediterranean.