The ship supported the seizure of Kwajalein Atoll, delivering troops and equipment ashore on 31 January, and then served as a floating dry dock and boat pool for the numerous landing craft required in an amphibious operation.

The dock landing ship then took on a cargo of pontoon barges and pilings intended for a motor-torpedo-boat base under construction at Emirau in the Bismarck Archipelago just north of New Ireland.

Belle Grove joined the massive amphibious force off Leyte on 20 October, ballasted down early that morning, and discharged her tank-loaded LCMs as part of the eighth assault wave.

Despite considerable air activity, the dock landing ship remained unscathed and, after a week of operations at Abuyo and San Pedro Bay, proceeded to Ulithi where she arrived on the 23rd.

Assigned to Operation Detachment, the planned invasion of Iwo Jima, the ship steamed to Guam on 7 February, loaded equipment, and shifted to Saipan the following day.

Although Belle Grove avoided injury in Typhoon Louise, which struck Okinawa in early October, many other ships and small craft suffered severe damage from that storm.

Lingering in that port for only three days, Belle Grove sailed down the coast to Hong Kong for rest and recreation before streaming the "Homeward Bound" pennant on 6 December.

On 2 January 1954, the dock landing ship sailed for Pearl Harbor in preparation for Operation Castle, a six-detonation atmospheric nuclear test slated to occur at Bikini and Eniwetok atolls in the Marshall Islands.

Arriving at Bikini Atoll on 19 January, Belle Grove resumed the familiar role of transport and "mother" ship to a boat pool of 26 small craft.

Intelligence suggesting an increase in the Soviet long-range bomber threat had accelerated air defense and early warning system construction in Alaska, and the dock landing ship received another resupply mission to those Arctic outposts.

High tensions with China marked this cruise, especially since the communists threatened Formosa with invasion at this time, but no incidents occurred and the ship departed for home on 8 September.

In mid-1960, after returning to the West Coast following her third postwar assignment in the Orient, she began an overhaul at the Todd Shipyard at San Pedro, California Departing that yard on 11 January 1961, the dock landing ship conducted post-overhaul refresher training and local operations out of Long Beach into the summer.

She also participated in Operation Tulungan, a multi-lateral Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) exercise held in the Philippines and designed to deter communist aggression in the region.

At the end of a month of leave and upkeep, the ship received emergency orders to load elements of the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Camp Del Mar.

The gradual rise in tension between the United States and Cuba, exacerbated by the Soviet Union's delivery of military assistance to that island, had broken out into a severe crisis on 14 October.

A U-2 reconnaissance flight, initially described as "a milk run", detected the presence of offensive nuclear weapon sites on Cuba and prompted President John F. Kennedy to order a naval "quarantine" of the island.

Belle Grove participated in amphibious Exercise "Back Pack" at Taiwan and then visited Okinawa and Japan before returning to Long Beach on 6 April.

In mid-July, after a period of local operations, the ship moved to Seattle, Washington, where she entered the Todd Shipyard for another modernization overhaul to repair her aging hull, piping systems, and cabling.

Assigned the task of establishing river patrol units in the Mekong Delta, Belle Grove steamed for Vung Tau, South Vietnam, on 10 January 1966.

Arriving in that port on 5 February, the ship spent the next two months maintaining LCM landing craft, PBR river patrol boats, and UH-1B "Huey" helicopters in the Rung Sat Special Zone.

She also served as a command center that coordinated Navy riverine patrols and Army helicopter sweeps against Viet Cong (VC) forces as part of Operation Jackstay.

Following a short period of local operations, during which she was transferred to Amphibious Squadron 11 (Phibron 11) on 1 July, Belle Grove sailed for another Far East tour on 1 September.

Belle Grove transported cargo between Da Nang and Vung Tau, both in South Vietnam; Sasebo, Yokosuka, and Numazu, Japan; Okinawa; and Subic Bay, Philippines.

Heading home in December, the ship suffered a delay in Pearl Harbor owing to boiler problems but finally arrived at Long Beach on 10 January 1967.

In both cases, a lack of pier space inspired the crew to demonstrate Belle Grove's versatility by assembling the crated helicopters in her well-deck and flying them off while she lay anchored in the harbor.

After unloading the sailing vessels on 1 November, Belle Grove moved to Long Beach where she spent the remainder of the year conducting local operations.

Arriving at Oahu on 7 February, the dock landing ship moored at the naval ammunition depot where she loaded dynamite and other explosives for the Atomic Energy Commission.

For the next five months, Belle Grove shuttled men and material between Da Nang, Vung Tau, Subic Bay and Okinawa, punctuating those lifts with short visits to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sasebo.

When in Vietnamese waters, the ship often put into effect the "exposed anchorage and antiswimmer watch" to foil any Viet Cong attempts to attach limpet mines to her hull.

Her only amphibious operation took place in early August, when Belle Grove helped shift marines and their equipment from Chu Lai to Da Nang.