USS Beverly W. Reid

After fitting out and local operations, Beverly W. Reid departed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 5 May 1967. There she carried out shakedown training into mid-June 1967.

Beverly W. Reid departed Guantanamo Bay for Little Creek on 16 June 1967, and arrived there on 19 June. Following post-shakedown upkeep at Little Creek, she conducted training in amphibious landings and underwater demolition team exercises. In late July and early August 1967, she visited Montreal, Quebec, in Canada, for the international exposition Expo 67.

Back at Little Creek on 11 August 1967, Beverly W. Reid resumed amphibious exercises on 16 August 1967 and remained so occupied through the end of August 1967. She spent most of September 1967 pierside in upkeep at Little Creek, making only a single five-day excursion to Onslow Bay in North Carolina late in the month. She operated off the Virginia Capes from 9 October to 15 October 1967, then carried out more amphibious drills at Onslow Beach in North Carolina. In port at Little Creek from 19 October until 31 October 1967, she met amphibious transport dock USS Raleigh at sea for more exercises off the Virginia Capes on 1 November 1967. Back at Little Creek on 2 November, Beverly W. Reid moored alongside repair ship USS Vulcan on 6 November 1967 for repairs. The repairs lasted until 24 November 1967, when she returned to Little Creek for the rest of 1967.

On 2 January 1968, Beverly W. Reid left for Puerto Rico to join the Caribbean Amphibious Ready Group, arriving at Roosevelt Roads on 6 January 1968. After amphibious training at Vieques Island until 9 January 1968, she departed with attack cargo ship USS Muliphen and landing ship dock USS Spiegel Grove for a port visit at Willemstad on Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles from 12 January 1968 to 16 January 1968; the three ships then headed back to Vieques Island to resume amphibious training with Task Group 44.9 on the morning of 17 January 1968. After a whole repertoire of drills—ship-to-shore exercises, gunfire support and antiaircraft exercises -- Beverly W. Reid visited Charlotte Amalie in the United States Virgin Islands from 23 January 1968 to 26 January 1968. She returned to Puerto Rican waters briefly on 28 January 1968 and 29 January 1968 and then headed for the Panama Canal Zone on 29 January 1968 in company with Raleigh, Spiegel Grove, landing ship tank USS Grant County, amphibious assault ship USS Guam, and Muliphen. The amphibious ready group carried out its mission in Panamanian waters, and then Beverly W. Reid called at Grenada from 15 February 1968 to 22 February 1068. She rejoined the amphibious ready group on 23 February 1968 and headed back to Puerto Rican waters. She reached Vieques Island on 24 February 1968, and operated locally until the second week in March 1968. After a visit to Frederiksted on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Beverly W. Reid set course on 17 March 1068 to return to Little Creek.

Beverly W. Reid arrived at Little Creek on 23 March 1968 and remained there for almost a month, before embarking a six-day trip to Onslow Bay to do sounding surveys on 21 April 1968. She returned to Little Creek on 27 March 1968 and stayed close to home during May 1968, mixing upkeep with hydrographic surveys of the waters off Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach and work with fleet ocean tug USS Shakori to help battleship USS New Jersey in gunnery calibration exercises off the Virginia Capes.

Underway on 1 June 1968, Beverly W. Reid sailed for Port Canaveral, Florida, arriving there on 3 June 1968. Over the next several days, she served as an observation platform for the Naval Ordnance Test Unit during test firings of Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles by the fleet ballistic missile submarines USS John Marshall and USS Thomas A. Edison. Tests complete, she departed for the Tidewater, Virginia, area on 18 June 1968.

Beverly W. Reid arrived at Little Creek on 20 June 1968, but after less than two weeks she embarked upon a succession of port visits, stopping at New York City, the Canadian ports of Pictu and Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Boothbay, Maine.

Back at Little Creek on 13 July 1968, Beverly W. Reid resumed training with the United States Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, evolutions that included gunfire support exercises off Camp Pendleton, Virginia, as well as work in antisubmarine warfare and amphibious warfare tactics. During that time, she was reclassified a "small amphibious transport" and was redesignated LPR-119 on 14 August 1968. On 23 August 1968, the locus of her operations shifted to the waters near Charleston, South Carolina, where she provided services to the fleet ballistic missile submarine John Marshall until late on 24 August 1968. She returned to Norfolk for a repairs alongside destroyer tender USS Sierra between 27 August 1968 and 20 September 1968.

After a final series of amphibious drills at Onslow Beach late in September 1968, Beverly W. Reid was placed in reduced operational status on 1 October 1968 as part of an economy measure. She remained in that status at Little Creek for the better part of a year.