 During this service she took part in the "Passage to Freedom" operation in the summer of 1954 when she lifted over 6,000 Indochinese civilians from Communist-surrounded Haiphong to southern Vietnam.She returned to San Diego on 21 November 1954, along with several other attack transports.Between 1954 and 1957 she served as the flagship for Comphibron 5, and made two cruises to the Far East, including troop training landings on Iwo Jima and in the Philippines.