The next several months were spent preparing for "Stickell"s next deployment. On 2 July 1968, "Stickell" left Newport for a six-month, 13-nation cruise of the Indian Ocean as part of the Navy's Middle East Force. She visited San Juan, Puerto Rico; Recife, Brazil; Luanda, Angola; Lourenço Marques, Mozambique; Port Louis, Mauritius; Cochin, India; Karachi, Pakistan; Bahrain; Massawa, Ethiopia; Mombasa, Kenya; Assab, Ethiopia; Bandar Abbas, Iran; Bushehr, Iran; Kuwait; and Dakar, Senegal — touching some ports more than once. While in the Persian Gulf area, "Stickell" participated in the international naval exercise "Middlinx XL". Together with units of the United States, British, and Iranian navies, "Stickell" once again demonstrated her readiness in the fields of anti-submarine and anti-aircraft warfare. "Stickell" returned home on 10 January 1969.