In fact, Scouting Force was still on the West Coast almost a year later when the time came for Fleet Problem XIV in February 1933, and the Roosevelt Administration, which took office in March, proceeded to keep it there indefinitely.

That afternoon, Admiral Frank B. Upham, Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet (CinCAF), broke his flag on board the newly arrived cruiser, and his old flagship, Houston, sailed for the United States.

[5] Soon after she broke Admiral Upham's flag and Houston sailed for home, Augusta proceeded south from Shanghai in December 1933, and, over the next few months, operated in the Philippines, interspersing training with her yearly overhaul at Cavite and Olongapo.

[5] The heavy cruiser remained in the Philippine Islands, receiving her usual yearly overhaul at Cavite and drydocking at Olongapo, in Dewey, before she re-embarked Admiral Upham and sailed for Hong Kong on 15 March 1935.

During this time, Admiral Murfin embarked in Isabel for the trip up the Pearl River to Canton (6 to 8 April), returning on the latter date to reembark in his flagship to resume his voyage up the China coast.

[5] Underway for Qinhuangdao, the port at the foot of the Great Wall of China, on 14 September, Augusta reached her destination on the 15th, where Admiral Murfin disembarked to visit the old imperial city of Beiping (now Beijing).

Admiral Yarnell transferred his flag to Isabel on 2 January 1937, when Augusta entered Cavite Navy Yard for repairs and alterations that included the fitting of splinter protection around the machine gun positions at the foretop and atop the mainmast.

The ship visited that South China port on the 19th, and Amoy the following day, before the CinCAF shifted his flag again to Isabel for a brief trip to Pagoda Anchorage (21 to 22 April), rejoining the heavy cruiser on the 23rd.

[5] Departing Vladivostok on 1 August, Augusta and the four destroyers sailed for Chinese waters, the latter returning to their base at Yantai and Augusta returning to Qingdao, where Admiral Yarnell continued to receive intelligence on the situation in North China and, as events developed around Shanghai, where increasing Chinese pressure on the comparatively small Japanese Special Naval Landing Force led to a build-up of Japanese naval units in the Huangpu River leading to that port.

[5] Her passage slowed by a typhoon which caused the ship to reduce her speed to five knots (9 km/h) and which produced rolls of 30 degrees and washed away the port 26-foot (8 m) motor whaleboat and its davits, Augusta reached her destination the following day, and stood up the Huangpu River.

American ships ceased calling at Shanghai as a result, and Admiral Yarnell's attempts to get a division of heavy cruisers to carry out the evacuation met resistance from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

[5] Following her yearly navy yard overhaul, and training in Philippine waters, Augusta visited Siam, French Indochina, and Singapore en route back to Shanghai, making port at her ultimate destination on 30 April 1939.

[5] Returning to Shanghai on 12 October, Augusta remained there through mid-November; during this time Admiral Hart shifted his flag to Isabel and proceeded up the Yangtze to Nanjing on an inspection trip (3 to 7 November 1939).

"Weather conditions were such that fueling at sea in the area would not have been practicable", Captain Magruder reported later, alluding to the reason why his ship had been dispatched to those waters, "and submarine operations at periscope depth would have been difficult due to the danger of broaching.

She had been chosen for special duty, the inception of which had come in the developing personal relationship between US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Prime Minister of the UK (since 1939 at war with Nazi Germany), Winston Churchill.

[5] Augusta had been chosen to serve as the President's flagship as early as mid-June, shortly after Admiral King had visited Roosevelt in connection with the drafting of Western Hemisphere Defense Plan No.

On 16 June, the New York Navy Yard commandant was informed that Augusta would soon require an availability for the installation of her CXAM radar and 1.1 inch (28 mm) antiaircraft guns, "incident to possible future Presidential use and other urgent work."

While Churchill was making the Atlantic crossing in the modern battleship Prince of Wales, the President was on his way; he departed Washington, D.C. at 1100 on 3 August for the Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut, where he embarked with his party on board the Presidential yacht Potomac, which, in company with her escort, Calypso, soon sailed for Appogansett Bay.

At 1335, the President left the ship in a whaleboat to fish in the nearby waters, taking with him members of his party and his son, Ensign Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., USNR, an officer of Mayrant on temporary duty as his father's aide.

The following morning, 14 August, off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, President Roosevelt went on deck to witness the operations of the first aircraft escort vessel (later CVE), Long Island, the prototype of a ship type that the Chief Executive had avidly pushed toward development.

[5] Augusta anchored at Blue Hill Bay at 1228 on 14 August, and Potomac moored alongside to commence the transfer of baggage and other gear, ultimately casting off at 1418 for passage to Rockland, Maine.

On 14 April, in company with Corry and Aaron Ward, she conducted experimental firings of turret guns against a drone simulating a torpedo plane approach, and returned to Casco Bay that night.

With Corry and Forrest as escorts, the heavy cruiser sailed on 31 May for Newport, arriving on 1 June and leaving the next day with Corn for calibration of radio direction finders in waters west of Brenton Reef Lightship.

The ship's war diary contains the following entry for that morning's Naval Battle of Casablanca: "The landing of our boats was heavily opposed by both shore installations and French troops and at 0617 the order to "Play Ball" was received – this meant that we were to carry out our Attack Plan and destroy to the best of our ability all resistance encountered."

Closing the range at 0915, Augusta opened fire with her 8 inch (203 mm) battery on one enemy cruiser, barring the Vichy ships' passage and turning them back into Casablanca harbor by 0950.

Geysers of water from near-misses erupted about Augusta and drenched the cruiser with yellow-dyed spray, but American carrier planes bombed Jean Bart later in the day and silenced her for the remainder of the campaign.

She departed on 19 August for a reconnaissance-in-force of St. Mandrier Island off Toulon, France, where the battery known as "Big Willie" was located, bombarding shore installations, and returning to the Sitka Assault Area the same day.

[5] While undergoing these repairs and alterations, Augusta suffered an explosion of unknown origin on 20 November in her ice machine room, which killed three-yard workers and injured four crew members.

[5] After Augusta and her screen had covered the approach of the President to Hampton Roads, she underwent minor emergency repairs, remaining at Norfolk until 7 March when she steamed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving there three days later.

She then conducted further training exercises in Chesapeake Bay until 7 July, when President Harry S. Truman, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy boarded her, and she stood out for Antwerp, Belgium, to carry her distinguished passengers on the first leg of their voyage to the Potsdam Conference.