LST arrived at Yokosuka on 11 June via Pearl Harbor and Midway Island. She made several cruises to the Korean coast to participate in tactical amphibious exercises and maneuvers of U.S. and Republic of Korean troops. LST-825 also carried prisoners-of-war from Korea to Japan. She returned to San Diego on 5 March 1953 for scheduled amphibious landing exercises and fleet tactics along the western seaboard. Her second Western Pacific cruise began on her departure from California on 20 January 1954. Spring and early summer were spent in operations along the Japanese and Korean coast as well as cargo duty between Eniwetok and Bikini Atoll.NOTE above statements not exact! The 825 left San Diego on the way to the far east in the fall of 1951, laying over I Hawaii and leaving Pearl Harbor Dec, 7, 1951 on its way to Japan via Midway Isle. Prisoners were transported to a prison camp in the southern part of Korea, not Japan. At least, that's a fact for the year 1952. Operation Passage to Freedom, 1954–1955 On 11 August 1954 LST-825 departed Yokosuka for French Indochina, where she assisted in "Operation Passage to Freedom." When the French withdrew from Indochina, after their defeat in the First Indochina War, and the subsequent partition of Vietnam, over 800,000 North Vietnamese chose to forsake their homes and move to the southern half of the country. Nearly 100 ships of the U.S. Navy under Rear Admiral Lorenzo S. Sabin helped transport the refugees in a mass exodus. In all, the U.S. Navy evacuated 310,848 North Vietnamese as well as 68,757 tons of cargo and over 8,000 vehicles. Hard-pressed and cramped sailors were rewarded when many of the 184 children born on the "Passage to Freedom" were named after U.S. ships and officers. Part of this task force from 26 August to 5 October 1954, LST-825 made five trips from the Northern capital, Haiphong, to southern ports with Vietnamese refugees and French troops and equipment. In recognition of her efforts the ship was awarded the Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citation. LST-825 returned to San Diego on 27 November 1954 and operated out of there until decommissioned on 20 September 1955, having been renamed USS Hickman County (LST-825) on 1 July. Dominican Republic, 1963–1965 Hickman County recommissioned in service at San Diego on 22 March 1963. Assigned to LST Reserve Squadron 2, she reported to the U.S. Naval Amphibious Base