 After assisting "Douglas H. Fox", "Van Valkenburgh" patrolled the area to search for possible missing men.The night prowl proved fruitless, but the ship was later relieved to hear that only one man of the stricken destroyer's complement remained unaccounted for.Subsequently, "Van Valkenburgh" was deployed to RP-16, in company with , and spent a relatively quiet patrol until her radar picked up the approach of , en route to relieve "Robert H. Smith".