to sea as a participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Tour visiting Germany, England, Netherlands, and other NATO alliances. Again participating in the traditional 'Blue Nose' ceremony while crossing the Arctic Circle before returning to Maine for Dry Dock repairs and updates. in 1985 she returned across the Atlantic with a stop in Azores for multiple assignments in the Mediterranean-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf. The US Navy began several "Freedom of Navigation" operations in the area around Libya. The O'Bannon participated in the third operation beginning on March 23 with an armada from the United States Sixth Fleet consisting of three aircraft carriers - USS America (CV-66), USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and USS Saratoga (CV-60); five cruisers, six frigates, 12 destroyers, 250 aircraft and 27,000 personnel conducting three carrier operations near the gulf. From November of 1985 through June of 1987 the O'Bannon made several trips from the Mediterranean and Gulf to home port. O'Bannon returned to being a ship-of-the-line with the formation of the rehabilitation team to refurbish all of her berthing areas. On 6 October 1986, she got underway for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, returning to Charleston on 6 April 1987. O'Bannon was part of the Middle East Task Force assigned to patrol off the Saudi Arabian coast near the Iran–Iraq War exclusion boundary and was released by the USS Stark. The O'Bannon had barely returned to her dock in Charleston when with the USS Stark incident occurred. After participating in New York City's Fleet Week, from 19 to 25 April 1988, O'Bannon remained in Charleston most of the rest of the year, with short deployments to the Caribbean. She got underway for a Mediterranean/Middle East deployment from 5 December 1988 – 21 July 1989. Underway from her homeport at Charleston, O'Bannon participated in Square Shooter Exercise on 24 January 1991, before conducting a port visit to Boston (21-23 February). On 1 August, she transited the Panama Canal before crossing the equator a week later. O'Bannon arrived back at her homeport on 13 December. O'Bannon remained in Charleston until April, steaming out to participate in Ocean Venture 92 from 1 to 9 May 1992. On 5 July, O'Bannon and Yorktown (CG-48) became the first U.S. Navy ships to make a port visit to Severomorsk, homeport of the Russian Northern Fleet. This was also the first port call by a U.S. naval ship anywhere in Russia since