the beginning of February, she sailed north to Norfolk, Virginia, where she conducted weapons testing and training. On 10 February, while she was engaged in those evolutions, a target drone skipped off the surface and struck Antrim causing a fire in the wardroom and in her electronics spaces. The accident killed a civilian instructor embarked in the warship. Antrim returned to Mayport, and passed the rest of February, engaged in repairs. The warship completed her weapons training and testing during March, and spent most of April, preparing to deploy to the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East. On 29 April, the guided-missile frigate stood out of Mayport. on her way to the Strait of Gibraltar. She entered the Mediterranean, on 9 May, and joined the 6th Fleet. Antrim carried out normal 6th Fleet training operations until the second week in June. On 11 June, the warship transited the legendary Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles and entered the Black Sea. For eight days, she conducted operations in the Black Sea, and during that time, also paid a four-day visit to Constanta, Romania. Antrim left the Black Sea, on 19 June, and resumed her operational schedule as a unit of the 6th Fleet. On 1 August, the guided-missile frigate passed through the Suez Canal and set a course for the Persian Gulf. Following a brief stop at Djibouti, on 3 August, she began duty as a radar picket ship on 4 August. Except for a port call at Karachi, Pakistan, from 27 September to 4 October, Antrim, served in the Persian Gulf for almost three months. She carried out turnover formalities with her relief at Djibouti, on 30 October, transited the Suez Canal, on 4 November, and laid in a course for Rota, Spain. After stopping at Rota, briefly on 10 November, Antrim set out across the Atlantic. She arrived in Mayport, on 21 November, and stood down for the last weeks of the year. The relative inactivity of the final month of 1983 carried over into and through the first month of 1984. Antrim did not put to sea again until the first week in February. On 3 February, the warship got underway for the coast of Central America. After a call at Puerto Cortés, Honduras, on 6 and 7 February, she transited the Panama Canal, on 10 February. For almost seven weeks, Antrim conducted operations off the western shores of