"Elliot" began her second deployment in 1980. On 23 January 1981, "Elliot" suffered a main bearing casualty resulting in one of her gas turbine engines having to be replaced. This replacement was completed at Subic Bay in 2 days. On 21 April "Elliot" encountered the first of several refugee boats. Over the next eight days "Elliot" picked up 158 refugees for which the crew was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal. Port visits on this deployment included stops in Hawaii, Guam, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, and Singapore. She returned from this deployment on 23 May.