Towing and training missions occupied her time until she put to sea on 21 August 1972 to rejoin the 7th Fleet in the western Pacific. Towing one Philippine minesweeper, escorting another, and making stops at Midway and Guam, Abnaki took over a month to make the voyage to Subic Bay. She arrived there on 28 September and remained until 3 October when she returned to sea to tow a floating crane to Vietnam. She arrived in Da Nang on 7 October, delivered her charge, and began duty as the standby salvage ship there. That duty involved staying in Da Nang harbor during the day to provide salvage services and putting to sea each night because of the threat posed by Viet Cong sapper-swimmers. She concluded that assignment on 20 October and then visited Hong Kong and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The tug returned to Subic Bay in mid-November and then ended the year visiting such ports as Ream, Singapore, and Bangkok.