WESTPAC Deployments
In June 1961 Edson, together with the other ships of DESDIV 231, sailed to Portland, Oregon, to represent the U.S. Navy at the annual Rose Festival. On 11 August 1961, Edson sailed from Long Beach harbor to start her second WESTPAC deployment. She spent three months in operations with the attack carriers USS Ranger and USS Ticonderoga and spent the month of December patrolling the straits between Taiwan and the mainland of Communist China.
On Friday, 13 March 1964, Edson departed for her third WESTPAC deployment. After the transit, Edson began duties with the Taiwan Patrol Force, CTF 72. The end of May and the months of June and July 1964 were filled with carrier operations, Gunfire Support Training in the Philippines, and operation LICTAS, a joint SEATO operation off the coast of the Philippines. August found Edson in the Gulf of Tonkin on special operations. It was here she was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for exceptionally meritorious service in support of operations in the Gulf of Tonkin during the period 2–5 August 1964. On her fifth deployment in 1967, she received a hit from a North Vietnamese shore battery while providing a naval gunfire support mission.
Edson served as plane guard for aircraft carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties, and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the Vietnam War. On 17 June 1968 she apparently took friendly fire from the US Air Force, along with several other U.S. and Australian ships.
On 12 December 1974, Edson suffered a fire in the after fireroom while training with the USS Coral Sea. The fire was caused by the ignition of oil which was spraying from a rupture in a lube oil gauge line. The area was secured and fire extinguished with no personnel casualties.
In January 1975, after repairs in Hawaii, the Edson continued on to WESPAC and in April she participated in Operation Eagle Pull (evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia) and Operation Frequent Wind (evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam), earning two Meritorious Unit Commendations.
As part of the observances of the Bicentennial of the U. S. Constitution in 1976, the mayor and city council of West Haven CT formally designated USS Edson as the city's official ship. She made two visits to this shoreside community, and members of the crew marched in the Constitution Day Parade through the center of downtown West Haven.
The Edson was decommissioned on 15 December 1988, and towed to the Philadelphia Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility for storage.
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