returned to Pearl Harbor via Pago Pago, Samoa. Mission of mercy Besides "special operations" on "barrier patrols" from Pearl Harbor, Wilhoite carried out search and rescue (SAR) missions, ready for any eventuality while on station. During her third SAR patrol, in the autumn of 1963, the ship sighted an approaching Japanese fishing vessel, Kayo Maru. Wilhoite subsequently took on board Eichi Nakata, a man who had been bitten by a shark, and carried him to Midway Island, where he received medical treatment. After that mission of mercy, Wilhoite returned to Pearl Harbor on 22 October 1963. Supporting Vietnam War operations By the mid-1960s, however, further changes were in store for the veteran warship. The growing pace of incursions by North Vietnamese-backed Viet Cong communist guerrillas against South Vietnam had resulted in escalating American support of the latter. Wilhoite accordingly was deployed to the Western Pacific (WestPac) in the spring of 1965, beginning a cycle of WestPac tours that lasted into 1969. Wilhoite conducted intermittent WestPac deployments, with corresponding Operation Market Time patrols off the coast of Vietnam, into January 1969. Hers was unsung duty—long hours of ceaseless patrol, aiding the fledgling South Vietnamese Navy in detecting and preventing supplies, weapons, and other materials from being infiltrated into South Vietnam by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. Often assisted by only two small boats, a Coast Guard patrol boat and aircraft, Wilhoite upon occasion had the responsibility for patrol over of ocean—an ample assignment for a ship with the size and range of a radar picket destroyer escort. On 19 June 1967, Wilhoite relieved on Operation Market Time station and assumed the duties of "mother ship" to two Navy "Swift" (PCF) boats, providing berthing accommodations for extra crew members and supplying them with food, fuel, and fresh water. At approximately 20:00 on 11 July, a "Market Time" patrol aircraft detected a steel-hulled trawler running darkened some from the coast of South Vietnam, on a westerly heading. Wilhoite, notified by radio of the trawler's course, set hers to close and identify the ship, commencing covert surveillance as soon as she picked up radar contact. The next morning, 12 July, Wilhoite closed for identification purposes but later opened the range. By that point, the trawler had changed course, heading away from the coast; Wilhoite accordingly maintained surveillance for three more days. Entering the "Market Time" area, the trawler drew more pursuers –