On 7 November 1952, while conducting exercises with Airship Squadron 2 off Jacksonville, Florida, she intercepted a distress signal from a damaged U.S. Navy blimp, "K-119", commanded by then-Lieutenant G. Robert Keiser, USN, and proceeded at flank speed to the last reported position to pick up Keiser and 2 other survivors, the co-pilot and navigator, for further transfer to the rescue and salvage ship USS "Escape" (ARS-6). The blimp itself, however, proved too waterlogged to be towed back to port and was taken under fire by "Sea Dog". The gas tanks were penetrated, and the burning blimp sank.