In January 1955, she embarked upon her first deployment to the western Pacific since World War II. Soon after her arrival, she participated in the evacuation of Chinese Nationalists from the Tachen Islands. Following that operation, she served on the Taiwan Strait patrol. "Stoddard" followed a schedule of deployments to the Far East alternated with west coast operations throughout the remainder of her career. During the first 10 years, she concentrated on the South China Sea-Taiwan Strait area because that was the major trouble spot for the United States in the western Pacific, although in 1961, the Laotian crisis brought her to the southeast Asia area, where she would soon concentrate all her efforts. During her time in port in San Diego, she appeared in the 1963 movie "A Ticklish Affair".