After one more trip to the battle-scarred Inchon and back, Commander Amphibious Group THREE embarked, relieving ComPhibGruONE. ESTES then weighed anchor and set course for home via Pearl Harbor, arriving in San Diego 19 April 1952. Eleven days later, CAPT Jack S. Holtwick, Jr., USN, 1 relieved CAPT Wood as Commanding Officer. Off Aliso Canyon, training exercise AMLEX I interrupted a quiet spring before ESTES set course for Mare Island Naval Shipyard for the summer.
Electronics were upgraded and highly specialized communications equipment were installed during this unusual yard period in addition to the usual upkeep. It was during this time that the mysterious "elephant-ears" were installed on the forward starboard kingpost. The elephant-ears were to be ESTES' unique distinction for the next two years. Other departures from the past included the installation of ESTES' first flight deck aft atop the potato locker, replacing mount 52, and the rigging of what appeared to be a stem-to-stern sprinkler system topsides. ESTES certainly had taken on a new character!
With the memories of Korea still fresh, a modernized ESTES took her departure 2 September and sailed into the future for a new type of operation scheduled to take place at Eniwetok Atol in the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. Embarked were RADM C.W. Wilkins, USN, Commander Task Group 132.3, the Navy Task Group attached to Joint Task Force 132, and many scientists to conduct vital experiments to be known as "Operation IVY." IVY added a new word to the vocabulary: "thermonuclear." Also aboard were a number of newsmen and one actor: Reed Hadley (of TV's smash hit, "Racket Squad"), who would narrate a documentary film to be produced by the U.S. Air Force. The film, titled "Operation IVY," would chronicle the events leading up to and including the entry of the United States into the thermonuclear age on 2 November 1952, with the detonation of "Mike," an experimental thermonuclear ("hydrogen") device that vaporized Elugelab Island at Eniwetok Atol.
A little more than three months later, ESTES passed Old Point Loma lighthouse abeam to port, in time for the Christmas holidays. Just into the new year of 1953, ESTES proceeded to Mare Island once more for a short yard period, receiving a sparkling new paint job.
Returning to San Diego, ESTES hosted VADM Martin, USN, Commander First Fleet, and LtGEN Hart, USMC, Commander Fleet Marine Forces Pacific, in connection with PACPHIBEX II, an amphibious training exercise that continued into May.
With RADM F.S. Withington, USN, Commander Amphibious Group THREE and Commander Task Force 9, embarked, ESTES bade farewell to San Diego 6 July 1953, setting course for Kodiak, Alaska, and another of the "unusual" operations for the ship -- unusual operations that were to become norm. This time, the purpose of "Operation Blue Nose," as it was called, was to resupply government installations -- the "DEW LINE" -- in the far north. ESTES arrived Kodiak one week out of San Diego. Proceeding north, the personnel of TF 9 were officially inducted into the "Honorary Order of the Arctic" as "Blue Noses" when the force crossed the Arctic Circle 19 July. While at anchor at Icy Cape, ESTES received the news that a truce had been signed in Korea. Continuing north to Wainwright on 31 July, ESTES pressed on to Point Barrow the following day. At anchor off Point Barrow, ESTES fell temporary victim to a shift in the wind which allowed pack ice to move inshore, immobilizing the ship for the better part of a week. USCGC NORTHWIND (W-282) proved her mettle and freed ESTES, plus USS ELECTRA (AKA-4) and USS SKAGIT (AKA-105), from the icy confines of the anchorage. The resupply mission complete, ESTES eagerly but cautiously set course for home port San Diego 9 August.
The following four months found ESTES operating out of San Diego. On 8 September 1953, CAPT Jacob W. Waterhouse, USN, relieved CAPT Holtwick as Commanding Officer.
As 1954 began, ESTES, now with her elephant-ears removed, took her departure for the Marshall Islands for her second thermonuclear test series: "Operation CASTLE," serving as flagship for Joint Task Force 7. This protracted series of tests lasted until 16 May, after which ESTES escorted USS CURTISS (AV-4) back to San Diego, non-stop.
Within six short weeks, ESTES, with RADM Lorenzo S. Sabin, Jr., USN, ComPhibGruONE, embarked, was underway 6 July for a six-month tour of duty in the Far East. By 26 July, a happy MOUNT McKINLEY greeted her relief at Yokosuka. On arrival, RADM Sabin relieved ComPhibGruTHREE as Commander Task Force 90 and ComPhibGruWESTPAC.
Scarcely had the crew grown accustomed to the aromas of Yokosuka when secret orders sent ESTES south on 14 August. Rumors and tension mounted until RADM Sabin announced that ESTES was headed first to Okinawa, then to Subic Bay, and to Henrietta Pass, at the outlet of the port of Haiphong, French Indo-China (now called Vietnam), into the South China Sea, arriving 18 August. ESTES would play a major part in "Operation Passage to Freedom," history's greatest civilian evacuation by sea; hundreds of thousands of freedom-loving Vietnamese would forsake their homes in the north to flee from the impending tyranny of Communism to then-still-free southern Vietnam. From mid-August until the end of October, the ships shuttled between Haiphong, Tourane, and Saigon. ESTES had the distinction of transporting the 100,000th refugee, Phan Hung Son, and his family, from Haiphong to Saigon.
The reward for a job well done was a short visit to Singapore, and on 2 November 1954 ESTES neared the Equator. Crossing the line the next day, all lowly "polywogs" were duly initiated and welcomed into the Ancient Order of the Deep -- the realm of Neptunus Rex.
Following the Singapore visit, ESTES proceeded to Hong Kong, stopped briefly at Saigon enroute. On 18 November 1954 in Hong Kong, CAPT Mell A. Peterson, USN, relieved CAPT Waterhouse as Commanding Officer.
Before returning to Yokosuka for the Yuletide, ESTES again sailed to war-torn Korea. On 22 January 1955, she traced her previous track to Vietnam, but eight days later another set of secret orders ordered her to depart. When underway, the crew were informed they were to take part in the internationally important evacuation of the Nationalist Chinese forces from the Tachen Islands, only a few miles from the coast of Communist China. RADM Sabin was to command the amphibious phase of the evacuation under the aegis of American Naval Forces commanded by VADM Alfred M. Pride, USN, Commander Seventh Fleet. After three days of preparation in Keelung, the port at the northern tip of Formosa (where it rains 246 days per year, on the average), ESTES departed for the Tachens, rendezvousing with the beach units on the morning of 7 February. For five super-tense days the evacuation proceeded on a 24-hour basis, with the flagship anchored close to the islands in company with USS SAINT PAUL (CA-73) and a division of destroyers, while CAP from Task Force 77 provided air cover. A greatly relieved crew set course for Yokosuka 12 February after the Tachens were successfully cleared with minimal opposition from the Reds. One aircraft was downed by small-arms fire; the pilot was rescued by a unit of the Nationalist Chinese Navy.
During the following two months, ESTES made an extended good-will cruise, calling at Hong Kong once more and at Kure and Beppu on Japan's Inland Sea. On 12 April, after ComPhibGruONE and Staff had moved ashore, ESTES took departure of Yokosuka for Keelung, reporting to Commander Seventh Fleet on arrival. Off Taiwan (Formosa), ESTES exercised daily with ships and aircraft of the Nationalist Chinese in preparation for the possibility of action in the tense international hot spot of Amoy, the tiny Nationalist-held island outpost within artillery range of the Chinese mainland.
In a welcome break in this tense period, the officers of the flagship had the honor of attending a reception hosted by the Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek at the Government House in Taipei. The occasion was to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Military Advisory Group, Formosa.
At 0930, 5 May 1955, the long-awaited ELDORADO arrived in Keelung to relieve ESTES. Less than six-hours later, ESTES was underway for a short stop at Yokosuka to reembark ComPhibGruONE and Staff, then for San Diego. After a 13-day non-stop race (at 15 knots!) across the Pacific, the mile-weary ship arrived in San Diego, receiving a hearty welcome from families, friends and brothers-in-arms. Thus ended the eleven-month-long "six-month tour" which began in July of the previous year.
Soon, ESTES was back in Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul, but she returned to San Diego in time to serve as flagship for RADM I.T. Duke, USN, and his massive amphibious exercise PACTRAEX 56-L, conducted off the shores of Southern California between 7 and 18 November. Also embarked for the operation were MajGEN Twining, BrigGEN O'Neil, and BrigGEN Dawson, all USMC.
On 21 December 1955, just 5 days short of the fifth anniversary of ESTES' recommissioning, CAPT Maxim W. Firth, USN, relieved CAPT Peterson.
In the five years since recommissioning, ESTES had added yeoman service in the troubled areas of Korea, Vietnam, and the Tachen Islands to her impressive WW II record. The peaceful Christmas of 1955 was only the third active duty Yuletide season ESTES had spent in the U.S. Even then, feverish preparations were in progress for "Operation REDWING," ESTES' third tour to participate in nuclear weapons testing at the Marshall Islands Proving Ground. Between March and July 1956, she was again in the Marshalls.
ESTES departed for Yokosuka 31 January 1957 with CAPT James B. Burrow, USN, in command. ESTES provided quarters and communications facilities until April, sailing then to visit Hong Kong. She returned to stateside duty 15 May, voyaging to Pearl Harbor in July and August.
In april 1958, CAPT Rollin E. Westholm, USN, 2 relieved CAPT Burrow. The year found ESTES sailing north in July to ports in British Columbia, and again in August to call at Seattle.
By the year 1959, ESTES had taken on a new look; where the elephant-ears had once been located, the air search radar antenna appeared; the air search antenna's former location atop the tower was taken by a new height-finding radar; and the last electronic relic of WW II, the SP radar antenna, was gone from the after kingposts. It was this "new look" ESTES that began her 1959 tour of duty in the Far East, directing important amphibious operations off Japan, Okinawa, and Korea, and exercises off Borneo with ships of the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy. During the tour, she visited Inchon, Chinhae, Pohang, Sasebo, Nagasaki, Kobe, Keelung, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
On 1 May 1959, CAPT Jesse B. Gay, Jr., USN, relieved CAPT Westholm in Pohang, Korea.
ESTES returned to Long Beach in August. In the Fall of that year occured ESTES' premier non-combat accomplishment:
The ESTES Flag Football Team won the West Coast championship, defending the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in the finals at San Diego.
Electronics were upgraded and highly specialized communications equipment were installed during this unusual yard period in addition to the usual upkeep. It was during this time that the mysterious "elephant-ears" were installed on the forward starboard kingpost. The elephant-ears were to be ESTES' unique distinction for the next two years. Other departures from the past included the installation of ESTES' first flight deck aft atop the potato locker, replacing mount 52, and the rigging of what appeared to be a stem-to-stern sprinkler system topsides. ESTES certainly had taken on a new character!
With the memories of Korea still fresh, a modernized ESTES took her departure 2 September and sailed into the future for a new type of operation scheduled to take place at Eniwetok Atol in the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. Embarked were RADM C.W. Wilkins, USN, Commander Task Group 132.3, the Navy Task Group attached to Joint Task Force 132, and many scientists to conduct vital experiments to be known as "Operation IVY." IVY added a new word to the vocabulary: "thermonuclear." Also aboard were a number of newsmen and one actor: Reed Hadley (of TV's smash hit, "Racket Squad"), who would narrate a documentary film to be produced by the U.S. Air Force. The film, titled "Operation IVY," would chronicle the events leading up to and including the entry of the United States into the thermonuclear age on 2 November 1952, with the detonation of "Mike," an experimental thermonuclear ("hydrogen") device that vaporized Elugelab Island at Eniwetok Atol.
A little more than three months later, ESTES passed Old Point Loma lighthouse abeam to port, in time for the Christmas holidays. Just into the new year of 1953, ESTES proceeded to Mare Island once more for a short yard period, receiving a sparkling new paint job.
Returning to San Diego, ESTES hosted VADM Martin, USN, Commander First Fleet, and LtGEN Hart, USMC, Commander Fleet Marine Forces Pacific, in connection with PACPHIBEX II, an amphibious training exercise that continued into May.
With RADM F.S. Withington, USN, Commander Amphibious Group THREE and Commander Task Force 9, embarked, ESTES bade farewell to San Diego 6 July 1953, setting course for Kodiak, Alaska, and another of the "unusual" operations for the ship -- unusual operations that were to become norm. This time, the purpose of "Operation Blue Nose," as it was called, was to resupply government installations -- the "DEW LINE" -- in the far north. ESTES arrived Kodiak one week out of San Diego. Proceeding north, the personnel of TF 9 were officially inducted into the "Honorary Order of the Arctic" as "Blue Noses" when the force crossed the Arctic Circle 19 July. While at anchor at Icy Cape, ESTES received the news that a truce had been signed in Korea. Continuing north to Wainwright on 31 July, ESTES pressed on to Point Barrow the following day. At anchor off Point Barrow, ESTES fell temporary victim to a shift in the wind which allowed pack ice to move inshore, immobilizing the ship for the better part of a week. USCGC NORTHWIND (W-282) proved her mettle and freed ESTES, plus USS ELECTRA (AKA-4) and USS SKAGIT (AKA-105), from the icy confines of the anchorage. The resupply mission complete, ESTES eagerly but cautiously set course for home port San Diego 9 August.
The following four months found ESTES operating out of San Diego. On 8 September 1953, CAPT Jacob W. Waterhouse, USN, relieved CAPT Holtwick as Commanding Officer.
As 1954 began, ESTES, now with her elephant-ears removed, took her departure for the Marshall Islands for her second thermonuclear test series: "Operation CASTLE," serving as flagship for Joint Task Force 7. This protracted series of tests lasted until 16 May, after which ESTES escorted USS CURTISS (AV-4) back to San Diego, non-stop.
Within six short weeks, ESTES, with RADM Lorenzo S. Sabin, Jr., USN, ComPhibGruONE, embarked, was underway 6 July for a six-month tour of duty in the Far East. By 26 July, a happy MOUNT McKINLEY greeted her relief at Yokosuka. On arrival, RADM Sabin relieved ComPhibGruTHREE as Commander Task Force 90 and ComPhibGruWESTPAC.
Scarcely had the crew grown accustomed to the aromas of Yokosuka when secret orders sent ESTES south on 14 August. Rumors and tension mounted until RADM Sabin announced that ESTES was headed first to Okinawa, then to Subic Bay, and to Henrietta Pass, at the outlet of the port of Haiphong, French Indo-China (now called Vietnam), into the South China Sea, arriving 18 August. ESTES would play a major part in "Operation Passage to Freedom," history's greatest civilian evacuation by sea; hundreds of thousands of freedom-loving Vietnamese would forsake their homes in the north to flee from the impending tyranny of Communism to then-still-free southern Vietnam. From mid-August until the end of October, the ships shuttled between Haiphong, Tourane, and Saigon. ESTES had the distinction of transporting the 100,000th refugee, Phan Hung Son, and his family, from Haiphong to Saigon.
The reward for a job well done was a short visit to Singapore, and on 2 November 1954 ESTES neared the Equator. Crossing the line the next day, all lowly "polywogs" were duly initiated and welcomed into the Ancient Order of the Deep -- the realm of Neptunus Rex.
Following the Singapore visit, ESTES proceeded to Hong Kong, stopped briefly at Saigon enroute. On 18 November 1954 in Hong Kong, CAPT Mell A. Peterson, USN, relieved CAPT Waterhouse as Commanding Officer.
Before returning to Yokosuka for the Yuletide, ESTES again sailed to war-torn Korea. On 22 January 1955, she traced her previous track to Vietnam, but eight days later another set of secret orders ordered her to depart. When underway, the crew were informed they were to take part in the internationally important evacuation of the Nationalist Chinese forces from the Tachen Islands, only a few miles from the coast of Communist China. RADM Sabin was to command the amphibious phase of the evacuation under the aegis of American Naval Forces commanded by VADM Alfred M. Pride, USN, Commander Seventh Fleet. After three days of preparation in Keelung, the port at the northern tip of Formosa (where it rains 246 days per year, on the average), ESTES departed for the Tachens, rendezvousing with the beach units on the morning of 7 February. For five super-tense days the evacuation proceeded on a 24-hour basis, with the flagship anchored close to the islands in company with USS SAINT PAUL (CA-73) and a division of destroyers, while CAP from Task Force 77 provided air cover. A greatly relieved crew set course for Yokosuka 12 February after the Tachens were successfully cleared with minimal opposition from the Reds. One aircraft was downed by small-arms fire; the pilot was rescued by a unit of the Nationalist Chinese Navy.
During the following two months, ESTES made an extended good-will cruise, calling at Hong Kong once more and at Kure and Beppu on Japan's Inland Sea. On 12 April, after ComPhibGruONE and Staff had moved ashore, ESTES took departure of Yokosuka for Keelung, reporting to Commander Seventh Fleet on arrival. Off Taiwan (Formosa), ESTES exercised daily with ships and aircraft of the Nationalist Chinese in preparation for the possibility of action in the tense international hot spot of Amoy, the tiny Nationalist-held island outpost within artillery range of the Chinese mainland.
In a welcome break in this tense period, the officers of the flagship had the honor of attending a reception hosted by the Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek at the Government House in Taipei. The occasion was to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Military Advisory Group, Formosa.
At 0930, 5 May 1955, the long-awaited ELDORADO arrived in Keelung to relieve ESTES. Less than six-hours later, ESTES was underway for a short stop at Yokosuka to reembark ComPhibGruONE and Staff, then for San Diego. After a 13-day non-stop race (at 15 knots!) across the Pacific, the mile-weary ship arrived in San Diego, receiving a hearty welcome from families, friends and brothers-in-arms. Thus ended the eleven-month-long "six-month tour" which began in July of the previous year.
Soon, ESTES was back in Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul, but she returned to San Diego in time to serve as flagship for RADM I.T. Duke, USN, and his massive amphibious exercise PACTRAEX 56-L, conducted off the shores of Southern California between 7 and 18 November. Also embarked for the operation were MajGEN Twining, BrigGEN O'Neil, and BrigGEN Dawson, all USMC.
On 21 December 1955, just 5 days short of the fifth anniversary of ESTES' recommissioning, CAPT Maxim W. Firth, USN, relieved CAPT Peterson.
In the five years since recommissioning, ESTES had added yeoman service in the troubled areas of Korea, Vietnam, and the Tachen Islands to her impressive WW II record. The peaceful Christmas of 1955 was only the third active duty Yuletide season ESTES had spent in the U.S. Even then, feverish preparations were in progress for "Operation REDWING," ESTES' third tour to participate in nuclear weapons testing at the Marshall Islands Proving Ground. Between March and July 1956, she was again in the Marshalls.
ESTES departed for Yokosuka 31 January 1957 with CAPT James B. Burrow, USN, in command. ESTES provided quarters and communications facilities until April, sailing then to visit Hong Kong. She returned to stateside duty 15 May, voyaging to Pearl Harbor in July and August.
In april 1958, CAPT Rollin E. Westholm, USN, 2 relieved CAPT Burrow. The year found ESTES sailing north in July to ports in British Columbia, and again in August to call at Seattle.
By the year 1959, ESTES had taken on a new look; where the elephant-ears had once been located, the air search radar antenna appeared; the air search antenna's former location atop the tower was taken by a new height-finding radar; and the last electronic relic of WW II, the SP radar antenna, was gone from the after kingposts. It was this "new look" ESTES that began her 1959 tour of duty in the Far East, directing important amphibious operations off Japan, Okinawa, and Korea, and exercises off Borneo with ships of the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy. During the tour, she visited Inchon, Chinhae, Pohang, Sasebo, Nagasaki, Kobe, Keelung, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
On 1 May 1959, CAPT Jesse B. Gay, Jr., USN, relieved CAPT Westholm in Pohang, Korea.
ESTES returned to Long Beach in August. In the Fall of that year occured ESTES' premier non-combat accomplishment:
The ESTES Flag Football Team won the West Coast championship, defending the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in the finals at San Diego.
On 20 February 1960 CAPT R.H. Woodfin, USN, relieved CAPT Gay as Commanding Officer. CAPT Paul C. Stimson, USN, relieved CAPT Woodfin as Commanding Officer on 20 May 1961, and through 1962 ESTES operated along the West Coast, serving as flagship of Amphibious Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. ESTES twice visited the Pacific Northwest during this time.
CAPT Allen P. Cook, Jr., USN, relieved CAPT Stimson as Commanding Officer in 1962. In 1963, CAPT Willard W. De Venter, USN, relieved CAPT Cook as Commanding Officer. CAPT William H. Pellett, USN, relieved CAPT De Venter as Commanding Officer in 1964.
The year 1965 found ESTES in Southeast Asia once more for her second Vietnam deployment, under the command of CAPT Albert K. "Bert" Earnest, USN, 3 CAPT Earnest was relieved in October 1966 by CAPT Hugh D. Murphree, USN.
With CAPT Murphree in command in 1968, ESTES proceeded to her third Vietnam tour. While in Subic Bay in February, CAPT Jens B. Hansen, USN, relieved CAPT Murphree as Commanding Officer. The Southeast Asia tour was interrupted by a yard period in Yokosuka in August and, early in 1969, ESTES returned to San Diego, where she was soon to lose her "AGC" designator in favor of reclassification as "LCC-12."
In April of 1969, CAPT Edward B. Rogers, Jr., USN, relieved CAPT Hanson as Commanding Officer. ESTES' subsequent deployment to the Far East commenced that summer and was expected to extend for eight or more months. As soon as her relief, USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC-19), was completed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, commissioned, underwent sea trials, and arrived in the Far East, ESTES would be released for return to San Diego. (BLUE RIDGE was the first of a new class of 23-knot, 19,290-ton LCCs.)
After a stop at Pearl Harbor, ESTES proceeded to the Far East. She made many calls, including Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea, Da Nang (Tourane), and Hong Kong. An unexpected turn of events precluded visits to Austrailia and Bangkok.
About three months into the deployment, CAPT Rogers received orders to return to San Diego for decommissioning. Back in San Diego, BOSN Johnny Boy Wade remained aboard to strip everything of value before ESTES was ordered into oblivion.
On 31 October 1969, ESTES was decommissioned for the final time.
CAPT Allen P. Cook, Jr., USN, relieved CAPT Stimson as Commanding Officer in 1962. In 1963, CAPT Willard W. De Venter, USN, relieved CAPT Cook as Commanding Officer. CAPT William H. Pellett, USN, relieved CAPT De Venter as Commanding Officer in 1964.
The year 1965 found ESTES in Southeast Asia once more for her second Vietnam deployment, under the command of CAPT Albert K. "Bert" Earnest, USN, 3 CAPT Earnest was relieved in October 1966 by CAPT Hugh D. Murphree, USN.
With CAPT Murphree in command in 1968, ESTES proceeded to her third Vietnam tour. While in Subic Bay in February, CAPT Jens B. Hansen, USN, relieved CAPT Murphree as Commanding Officer. The Southeast Asia tour was interrupted by a yard period in Yokosuka in August and, early in 1969, ESTES returned to San Diego, where she was soon to lose her "AGC" designator in favor of reclassification as "LCC-12."
In April of 1969, CAPT Edward B. Rogers, Jr., USN, relieved CAPT Hanson as Commanding Officer. ESTES' subsequent deployment to the Far East commenced that summer and was expected to extend for eight or more months. As soon as her relief, USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC-19), was completed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, commissioned, underwent sea trials, and arrived in the Far East, ESTES would be released for return to San Diego. (BLUE RIDGE was the first of a new class of 23-knot, 19,290-ton LCCs.)
After a stop at Pearl Harbor, ESTES proceeded to the Far East. She made many calls, including Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea, Da Nang (Tourane), and Hong Kong. An unexpected turn of events precluded visits to Austrailia and Bangkok.
About three months into the deployment, CAPT Rogers received orders to return to San Diego for decommissioning. Back in San Diego, BOSN Johnny Boy Wade remained aboard to strip everything of value before ESTES was ordered into oblivion.
On 31 October 1969, ESTES was decommissioned for the final time.
