After transiting the Panama Canal, she reached NS San Diego, Calif., her home port, and joined the Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet.

There, on 6 August, she embarked Marines and their equipment and put to sea for participation in "Operation Tradewind", conducted in the area of Lahaina Roads, Maui.

On 8 March, Alamo headed for Pearl Harbor where she joined a fast transport group for a series of amphibious force landing and salvage exercises at Kauai.

Ten days later, she entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for an overhaul and returned to her home port on 31 July to begin two and one-half months of refresher training.

For the next two months, Alamo shuttled various Marine Corps units between Yokosuka and Okinawa, terminating her last voyage of this duty at Naha on 11 February 1959.

Following a round-trip run to Astoria, Oreg., – from 17 to 25 April – to deliver a load of small craft, she took part in exercises with other units of Amphibious Squadron 3 off Coronado, followed by "Operation Twin Peaks", held off the California coast from 18 May to 5 June.

En route, several ships of the squadron were diverted to the Caribbean in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Alamo was held in Hawaii on a standby basis.

In mid-September, the ship entered the Bethlehem Steel Co. shipyard, Long Beach, California, to begin an overhaul which was completed barely in time for her to get back home for the Christmas holidays.

On 11 March, Alamo was called upon to make an unscheduled run to Yokosuka carrying men and equipment for the American military buildup in the Far East as the United States was beginning direct participation in operations in Vietnam.

She took part in Operations Cleansweep and Ragweed during September, devoted most of the autumn to training exercises, and ended the year in port at NS San Diego.

Alamo spent six months operating as a part of an amphibious ready group (ARG) and shuttled troops and equipment from Subic Bay and Okinawa to various points in Vietnam.

In early 1967, she entered drydock at the Todd Shipyard in San Pedro, California, for her third major overhaul which, with the ensuing series of refresher training exercises, accounted for most of the year.

On 30 January 1969, she began another WestPac deployment in which she lifted troops and equipment to Da Nang and then proceeded to Subic Bay where she joined ARG "Bravo."

Alamo opened 1970 at San Pedro, California, undergoing a restricted availability during which repairs were made to damaged deck plating, cranes, and a boiler.

After briefly touching back at Subic Bay, Alamo left Danang to onload Marines and vehicles as part of the general American troop withdrawal.

Alamo participated in the Second Battle of Quảng Trị, involving the sea and air landing of Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps troops near Quang Tri City in June 1972.

After refueling and onloading Battalion Landing Team 2/9 (BLT 2/9) she sailed to Numazu, Japan, unloaded the Marines, and pushed on to Yokosuka for a fortnight's restricted availability.

Alamo's ensuing assignment was an amphibious training exercise off Okinawa which, in turn, was followed by stops at Subic Bay; Chinhae, South Korea; Hong Kong; and Numazu and Yokosuka, Japan.

Her other subsequent ports of call included Sasebo and Kagoshima, Japan; Keelung, Taiwan; Buckner Bay, Okinawa, Singapore; Sattahip, Thailand; and Inchon, Korea.

She also participated in joint exercises with Korean and Thai naval forces and made numerous troop and supply shuttles before getting underway for home on 23 October.

She departed Singapore on 15 March and made her way across the Indian Ocean to the Arabian Sea where she joined the contingency force established in response to the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran, Iran.

In February, she began concentrating her efforts on readiness exercises, trials, and examinations specifically geared to preparing the amphibious warship for her scheduled deployment to the Far East.

On the first leg of the crossing she participated in multinational defense exercises with units of the navies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand as well as with elements of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

En route, further troubles surfaced in the boilers of her main propulsion plant so that, upon her arrival in Subic Bay on 20 July, she commenced another round of repairs.

At that time she headed back to Korea to participate in the bilateral exercise "Operation Valiant Blitz 85-1" in cooperation with elements of the South Korean Navy and Marine Corps.

Following stops at Buckner Bay and Sasebo, Japan, Alamo began the voyage back to the United States at the end of the third week in November.

The amphibious warship spent the whole of 1985 conducting exercises, trials, examinations, and inspections either in port in San Diego or in waters adjacent to the west coast.

The danger of violence during elections in the Philippines even prompted the cancellation of planned exercises at Iwo Jima in order that Alamo and other Navy ships be on station near Manila to render assistance to United States citizens in that eventuality.

The leave and upkeep period ended during the second week in August, and Alamo started another schedule of amphibious warfare training in waters along the west coast.

During her return trip in early June, she was diverted to the area roughly 600 nautical miles northeast of Natal to participate in the search effort for the wreckage of Air France Flight 447.