Her itinerary changed late in February 1957 when she steamed to San Francisco, to take in tow for the first leg of her journey to the east coast for her conversion to a guided missile cruiser. The two ships departed San Francisco on 2 March and arrived at Rodman in the Panama Canal Zone on the 29th. There, "Abnaki" turned her charge over to and headed back to Oahu for operations in Hawaiian waters through the summer. On 17 September, the fleet tug set sail for the Far East and provided support services for units of the 7th Fleet until returning to Pearl Harbor on 27 February 1958 and resuming mid-Pacific operations. On 18 November, she stood out of Pearl Harbor for another deployment with the 7th Fleet in the western Pacific.