 The destroyer departed for Mayport on 17 September and underwent a two-week tender availability before sailing for the Mediterranean on 14 October.The end of November found "Lawe" in the Middle East, and she spent the Christmas holidays at Mombasa, Kenya.She departed Kenya on 29 December for Djibouti, French Somaliland, and celebrated the arrival of the new year, 1966, at sea in the Indian Ocean.