USS Advance (MSO-510) - Operation Market Time

Operation Market Time

Following post-deployment standdown, Advance cruised the waters of the American Pacific coast until late in August when she began regular overhaul at a civilian shipyard. Although this work ended on 24 November, the ship remained moored at Long Beach for the rest of the year. Refresher and type training occupied her time until mid-May 1966. On 16 May, she departed Long Beach and headed back to the western Pacific. She made stops along the way at Pearl Harbor, Johnston Island, Kwajalein Atoll, and Guam. At the latter island, the minesweeper underwent a 10-day repair period. She arrived in the Far East on 5 July. Eleven days later, she embarked upon her first Vietnam patrol of that deployment. Until mid-August, the minesweeper conducted missions in Operation Market Time, the ongoing patrols to interdict communist waterborne logistics efforts. Her guns were fired in anger for the first time in her career on the second day of the patrol, when a group of three junks refused to heave to when so ordered. Advance and an accompanying swift boat opened fire and promptly destroyed all three. Later in the patrol, the warship encountered a disabled cargo junk and towed it to a friendly village. She concluded the first patrol period of the deployment on 26 August when she entered Sasebo, Japan, for repairs.