USS Advance (MSO-510) - Vietnam Operations

Vietnam Operations

Advance spent the first five weeks of 1965 in upkeep at Subic Bay and, on 7 February, headed for her first combat tour—in the recently escalated war in South Vietnam. She cruised the coastal waters of South Vietnam for about two weeks with Task Group (TG) 76.5, returning to Subic Bay on 22 February. She remained in Subic Bay for a fortnight and then headed back to Vietnam on 7 March. The minesweeper conducted special operations off the coast of South Vietnam until 9 April and then shaped a course for Australia. She arrived in Brisbane, Australia, on 30 April and spent about a week engaged in the festivities celebrating the Allied victory in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. During the second week in May, the warship visited Sydney, Australia; then made a four-day stop at Kembla, Australia; and got underway on 19 May to return home. She made stops at Fiji, American Samoa, Johnston Island, and Pearl Harbor before re-entering Long Beach on 26 June.