"Elliot" departed San Diego, California on 13 April 1983 for the third deployment of her career. Port visits on this deployment included stops in Hawaii, Philippines, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Guam and Hong Kong. On 31 July, a small boat was spotted by the forward lookout. A total of 68 Vietnamese refugees were subsequently rescued and were turned over to state officials in Subic Bay. "Elliot" was again awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal for her rescue operation. During August, "Elliot" endured being at sea through the combined forces of two typhoons, though no significant damage resulted. On 1 September, "Elliot" departed Sasebo, Japan on four hours' notice, to respond to the downing of KAL 007. "Elliot" steamed at 32 knots (60 km/h) for a thousand miles (1,900 km)