The destroyer returned to Japan in mid-February and remained there almost a month before taking up duty on "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin with "Bon Homme Richard" on 17 March. Five days later, she shifted her plane-guard service to the carrier and remained so employed until 27 March when she joined , , and in a fruitless, two-day search for a plane lost at sea. On 29 March, she rejoined "Kitty Hawk" and headed for Subic Bay, whence she operated through 4 April conducting gunnery drills and ASW exercises.