In response, on the morning 6 November, President Dwight D. Eisenhower put all American warships on alert; and some, including "Benham", received orders to reinforce the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. The destroyer got underway that same day and, after a non-stop 16-day voyage, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean on 22 November. There, she helped protect the deployment to Egypt of an emergency force under the auspices of United Nations. "Benham" also helped cover the slow withdraw of British, French, and Israeli forces from the Suez Canal region.