 It made the first of many amphibious deployments from Okinawa to the coast of Vietnam on 10 April 1967.The first operation actually conducted was on 14 April 1967, when the MEU conducted a rescue of the crew of the SS Silver Peak, a Panamanian vessel run aground by Typhoon Violet, in vicinity of Minami Ko Shima Island, Japan.Days later, it was committed to Operation Union, a search and destroy mission in Vietnam.