The ship next sailed to the Dominican Republic to assist in the withdrawal of units of the Inter-American Peace Force which had helped restore stability during a political crisis.

On 13 May, another cruise to the Caribbean began which included visits to Bermuda, Nassau, Bahamas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Key West, Florida.

The vessel briefly returned to Norfolk on 3 June and then retraced her route to take part in Operation Race Run at Vieques Island.

During the four-month cruise, she was involved in Operation Exotic Dancer II, held off Puerto Rico and visits included San Juan and Roosevelt Roads, La Guaira, Venezuela; Colón, Panama; Guantánamo Bay; Bridgetown, Barbados; and St. Thomas.

She also visited Genoa, Livorno, and Naples, Italy, Barcelona and Rota, Spain, Mersin, Turkey, and Athens, Greece.

The first two weeks in August were spent in naval mine countermeasures exercises held in the area of Charleston, South Carolina.

Her ports of call included Alicante, Barcelona, and Rota, Spain; Trieste and Venice, Italy, and Corfu, Athens, and Rhodes, Greece.

On 10 October, Austin got underway for Souda Bay, Crete, as a part of the Sixth Fleet response to the Yom Kippur War.

Her subsequent ports of call included Cartagena, Colombia, Vieques, Puerto Rico, and St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda.

The ship continued her routine of shuttling marines and their equipment between various Caribbean ports through 16 December, when she arrived back at Norfolk.

Her ports of call during the cruise included Ørland, Norway; Edinburgh, Scotland; Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands; Esbjerg, Denmark; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Bremerhaven, Germany, and Portsmouth, England.

There she took part in Operation Northern Wedding, in conjunction with other NATO naval units, and made stops in Norway, Denmark, and England, before returning to Norfolk 31 October.

resting in his stateroom, she plowed into a large container ship thirty miles off the coast of Spain, avoiding capsizing and all-hands-lost by mere seconds.

Late in June, she voyaged south and west to the gulf coast of Florida to perform a special project for the Chief of Naval Operations.

Austin completed the repair period on 2 August 1982 and spent most of the remainder of the year undergoing post-overhaul inspections and examinations at Norfolk.

During the early part of February, the warship took an extended break from training to make a 12-day port visit to New Orleans, Louisiana, for the Mardi Gras festival.

The warship arrived in the Mediterranean late in May and disembarked the Marine Corps units at Beirut, Lebanon, where a guerilla-style civil war among a virtual rainbow of factions complicated by military incursions on the parts of Syria and Israel, had been in progress at varying levels of intensity for some time.

In September 1982, the assassination of President-elect Bachir Gemayel touched off atrocities that brought a multinational peacekeeping force into the country soon thereafter.

Austin, for her part, remained in the vicinity providing support for the troops, anchoring nearby during the day and steaming out to sea at night.

Too quickly perhaps, for on 23 October 1983, a terrorist shattered that routine when he drove an explosives-laden truck into the lobby of the headquarters of the Marine Corps units stationed ashore.

On 13 February, she put to sea to participate in a minesweeping exercise off the coast of North Carolina before heading for Scandinavian waters.

Following the conclusion of the exercise, the amphibious transport dock made ceremonial visits to ports in Norway, the Netherlands, and in the United Kingdom.

In June, at the conclusion of the usual post-deployment stand down, Austin embarked upon a schedule of normal operations along the east coast.

On 2 July 1985, she made the brief voyage to Morehead City where she embarked Marine Corps units and their equipment for another tour of duty with the Sixth Fleet.

She departed Norfolk 12 August and, after embarking Marine Corps units at Morehead City the next day, set sail for northern Europe and another series of exercises with forces of other NATO nations.

Austin embarked elements of 3d Battalion, 8th Marines from Camp Lejeune (primarily Kilo Company) at Morehead City on 29 September 1987.

Austin and 22d MEU participated in Operations Sierra de Retin, Phinia 89, Noble Shirley, and the NATO exercise Dragon Hammer in Sardinia, returning to Morehead City 18 March 1988.

The Austin visited Rota and Cartagena, Spain, Marseille and Toulon, France, Naples, Italy, Antalya, Turkey, and Haifa, Israel.

In late October 1990 the USS Austin supported Marines in Operation Sharp Edge, the non-combatant evacuation and defense of the US Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia.

After roughly a week anchored off the coast of Haiti, the Austin set sail for Guantánamo Bay (GITMO), Cuba.