Recommissioning
In the aftermath of the Berlin Crisis of 1961, Yancey was reactivated as part of President John F. Kennedy's bid to build up the U.S. Navy. On 17 November 1961, Yancey was recommissioned at Portland, Oregon, with Captain Gordon R. Keating in command. The ship departed from San Diego on 12 January 1962 and reached Norfolk, her new assigned home port, on 2 February, there becoming the newest member of Amphibious Squadron (PhibRon) 12. Over the next months, Yancey took part in a variety of exercises and maneuvers.
Yancey participated in Operation Phiblex in the spring of 1962, operating off Roosevelt Roads and Vieques, Puerto Rico. She later paid a port call at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, before she returned to Roosevelt Roads and reloaded equipment and embarked Marines slated to return to Morehead City, North Carolina. Subsequently returning to Norfolk on 2 May, Yancey touched briefly at Charleston, South Carolina, to take on additional landing craft before returning to the Tidewater region to spend the remainder of May.
Subsequently visiting Boston, and Rockland, Maine, Yancey participated in amphibious boat exercises at Provincetown, Massachusetts, before she got underway on 24 July for Davisville, Rhode Island. There, she loaded a Seabee unit and their equipment and headed eastward, bound for Rota, Spain. Offloading one Seabee unit and onloading another, Yancey then paused briefly at Gibraltar before touching at Lisbon on the return leg of her voyage to the United States. Disembarking the seabees and unloading their equipment at Davisville, Yancey headed back to Norfolk, reaching her homeport on 18 August 1962.
On 17 October, Yancey again sailed from Norfolk and proceeded to Morehead City, to load marines and equipment for Operation PhiBrigLex (Amphibious Brigade Exercises) slated for Vieques, Puerto Rico. Upon arrival, the attack cargo ship loaded immediately and set out to join the rest of the ships in the squadron. She soon was fighting her way through Hurricane Ella which caused her to alter her course to avoid the most severe part of the storm.
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