On Sunday, August 2, 1964, the destroyer , while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, was claimed to have been approached by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. The North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. One U.S. aircraft was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. "Maddox" was "unscathed except for a single bullet hole from a Vietnamese machine gun round".