A lieutenant commander by the end of World War I, Bearys first post-war assignment was duty at the U.S. Navy Bureau of Navigation from 1919 to 1921. He then commanded three destroyers, in 1921, from 1921 to 1922, and from 1922 to 1923. From 1923 to 1924 he served ashore at the United States Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C., in the Division of Fleet Training, Navy Operations. He then returned to sea with duty aboard the battleship from 1925 to 1927, seeing service in the Second Nicaraguan Campaign.