In 1971, James E. Kyes after several important exercises between Long Beach and Pearl Harbor, got under way for the Western Pacific on 19 March. Arriving in the Gulf of Tonkin and Vietnamese waters on 3 April, James E. Kyes plane guarded for the USS Hancock and steamed with the USS Ranger. On 11 May 1971, the ship again arrived in the Gulf and plane guarded for the USS Ticonderoga.