USS Avenge (MSO-423) was an Agile-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the task of clearing mines that had been placed in the water to prevent the safe passage of ships.

Her ports of call during that deployment with the United States Sixth Fleet included Gibraltar; Barcelona, Spain; Nice, Cannes, and Toulon, France; Monaco; Valletta, Malta; Naples, Italy; and Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands.

Following leave and upkeep, the ship sailed on 9 April for the coast of Nova Scotia and participated in minesweeping operations off Halifax before getting underway on 14 May to return to her home port.

After reaching Gibraltar, she visited Valletta, Malta; Suda Bay, Crete; Kos Island, Greece; Gaeta and Naples, Italy; and İzmir, Turkey.

The largest came in Octoter at La Spezia, Italy, when she joined units of the French, Greek, Turkish, Belgian, and Italian navies in Exercise "Gauge."

After returning home, she made an unscheduled deployment to the Caribbean in April in response to a political crisis in the Dominican Republic and did not get back to Charleston until August.

In January 1962, Avenge operated from Panama City, Florida, providing services for the Naval Mine Defense Laboratory and reported back to her home port in February.

Early in January 1963, the ship took 19 days to cross the Atlantic due to winter storms as she embarked upon another Mediterranean tour during which she took part in several combined exercises and visited ports in Italy(Naples, La Spezia, Livorno, Augusta Bay), Greece (Kalamata, Thessalonika), and France.

In early December, the minesweeper took part in an amphibious exercise off Vieques, Puerto Rico, before returning to her home port for the Christmas holidays.

In February 1966, the ship was part of the recovery force off Cape Kennedy during tests of the Apollo rocket and returned to Charleston in March and conducted local operations through June.

She sailed to Savannah once more in early July for another period of overhaul, and she left the shipyard in September for refresher training in the Norfolk area.

After a brief tender availability, Avenge provided services to the Mine Warfare School at Charleston before sailing for Newport, Rhode Island, on 2 May to conduct refresher training.

The minesweeper got underway on 15 April to take part in mine tests and returned to port on 26 May for a standdown period in preparation for her forthcoming modernization.