USS Loyalty (AM-457) - Three More Far East Tours of Duty

Three More Far East Tours of Duty

From 1956 until late 1964 Loyalty sailed on three WestPac cruises; performed special operations in 1962 during the nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean; and exercised off the California coast perfecting the techniques of modern mine warfare. She also performed sonar searches for downed aircraft. Her service with the powerful U.S. 7th Fleet was climaxed during her 1964 cruise. Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers in international waters, Loyalty was dispatched to steam off the coast of Vietnam ready for further provocation.

In 1962 - 1963, the Loyalty was one of five in a division of minesweepers that were deployed off the coast of Vietnam in the Tonkin Gulf to perform electronic countermeasures activities and to vector South Vietnamese gunboats to interdict large junks coming down the coast from North Vietnam that were suspected of providing arms and ammunition to cadres of Viet Cong operating in South Vietnam.