Following her return to normal west coast duty in January 1959, the U.S. Navy decided to use the carrier exclusively for antisubmarine warfare. On 30 June 1959, she became an antisubmarine warfare support aircraft carrier (CVS-20). Carrier Anti-Submarine Air Group 59 (CVSG-59) was assigned to "Bennington" until her decommissioning. During her fourth tour of duty in the Far East, carried out between October 1960 and May 1961, the Laotian crisis erupted. Again, she earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. The final deployment of that period was characterized by a return to more normal duty, training and port calls.