Departing Pearl Harbor on 6 March, "Carpenter" ultimately reached "Yankee Station" off Vietnam three weeks later. Familiar plane-guard duties, punctuated only by the occasional sonar, helicopter, and DASH exercise with friendly submarines filled her first two weeks on station. On 14 April, "Carpenter" became the surveillance operations ship for the task force, coordinating and tracking all surface and subsurface contacts for the task force on "Yankee Station". On 29 April, the destroyer stood into Subic Bay for a week of maintenance and minor repairs.