The Tacoma was powered by a combination of two Cummins Diesel engines and a General Electric LM-1500 Gas Turbine.

[5] During late 1969, Tacoma conducted shakedown training and independent ship exercises along the California coast.

While so engaged on 16 October, she joined in a search and rescue mission and recovered a sailor who had fallen overboard from USS Neches the previous night.

For almost four years, Tacoma alternated between deployments to South Vietnam and patrols in the islands of the Trust Territories of Micronesia.

On 22 November, she and several other units of the Coastal Surveillance Force cooperated in the destruction of a North Vietnamese infiltration trawler.

Between then and 26 July, she visited seven islands in the Yap and Palau districts of the Eastern Carolines, conducting surveillance and making goodwill stops.

On 5 November, the gunboat departed Guam in company with USS Asheville and headed, via Subic Bay, for Vietnamese waters.

After almost two months patrolling the Vietnamese coastline, Tacoma departed Cam Ranh Bay on 26 January 1972 for a visit to Bangkok, Thailand.

Tacoma reached Apra Harbor on 31 May and commenced three months of sea trials, independent exercises, restricted availabilities, and inspections.

Between 20 October and 15 December, she made two patrols along the Vietnamese coast, broken by a visit to Bangkok, Thailand, in mid-November.

She laid over in Subic Bay beginning 18 December awaiting the completion of Asheville's engine repairs.

Late that month, she visited Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei on the northern coast of Borneo.

That assignment, calling for operations along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean, continued until decommissioning.

Tacoma was decommissioned on 30 September 1981 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, and at that time, was equipped with a 3"/50 caliber gun mount and a 20 mm aft.