"American Victory" was removed from the reserve fleet in 1966, and chartered to the Hudson Waterways Corporation who used her to ferry military equipment to American forces in South Vietnam. She was deactivated again in October 1969, and placed in the James River Reserve Fleet in Lees Hall, Virginia, where she remained until 1985. "American Victory" was then renovated as part of a program to determine the efforts needed to reactivate mothballed Victory ships. In June, after US$2.5 million had been spent to bring her up to fully operational condition, she sailed for just 26 hours before returning to the Naval Reserve Fleet.