Touching at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guam, and Subic Bay, "Robert L. Wilson" took up a naval gunfire support mission 36 miles (67 km) south of Huế, the ancient capital of South Vietnam. She then undertook search and rescue duty in the Gulf of Tonkin after 28 October, destroying two sampans with .50 caliber machine gun fire and hand grenades. In early November "Robert L. Wilson" was assigned as plane guard for on "Yankee Station". She remained in the Far East through the end of the year.