On 18 April 1975 Captain John McIntyre took command and took her through an extended shakedown and two overseas deployments, including the evacuation of Americans from Beirut in May 1976, for which the ship and crew received the Humanitarian Service Medal. During the standup for the evacuation, "Raleigh" spent 105 consecutive days at sea in the Eastern Mediterranean in early 1976. Later that year, she participated in a Northern Europe amphibious demonstration deployment to Norway, after which Captain McIntyre and crew were feted upon their return to their Norfolk home port following almost two years of extensive operations.