The warship remained in southern California waters for the first 10 weeks of 1964, preparing for a Far East deployment. On 13 March, "Berkeley" stood out of Long Beach in company with the cruiser and 11 other destroyers bound for her first tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. After calling at Pearl Harbor, where the aircraft carrier joined company, the task group steamed to the East China Sea for a month of training. Detached on 18 April, "Berkeley" proceeded to Hong Kong, where she embarked Vice Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, and sailed on to Bangkok, Thailand, for the annual Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) conference. After rejoining her task group in late April, the guided missile destroyer spent the next two months screening the carriers and and participating in a SEATO landing exercise in the Philippines.