The third ship to be named Vega by the Navy, AF-59 was laid down on 7 June 1954 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 28 April 1955; sponsored by Mrs. Theodore C. Lonnquest; and commissioned on 10 November 1955.

In between her deployments to the "Yankee-Station" or to "Market-Time" zones, Vega maintained a regular schedule of local operations, overhauls, and refresher training upon return to the west coast.

Homeported at San Francisco, California, Vega continued her unglamorous but vital duty of providing the necessary supplies to keep the Fleet and its men in top operating condition.

Her normal routine of operations was interrupted later that month, when North Korean MiG fighters shot down an American EC-121 surveillance aircraft over the Sea of Japan.

As tensions rose between Pyongyang and Washington, D.C., the 7th Fleet responded to the crisis by dispatching a task force which included the nuclear attack carrier Enterprise to the vicinity.

Returning to Subic Bay on 27 June, the ship remained there until 6 July, when she sailed for Yankee Station—as bad weather had grounded all COD (carrier onboard delivery) aircraft, and supplies needed to be delivered to the Fleet.

There, the supply ship loaded Fleet freight and soon sailed for the west coast of the United States, arriving at San Francisco, California, on 5 September, where she remained for the rest of 1969.

After entering the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 2 January 1970 for her regular overhaul, Vega spent three months in dockyard hands before she emerged on 2 April to commence refresher training out of San Diego, California.

After evading typhoon "Hope" en route, Vega stopped briefly at Subic Bay before she pressed on, on 8 October for her first line tour of the deployment on Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam.

Operating in support of "Market Time," Vega transferred some 392 tons of food -- Christmas supplies—to ships engaged in the daily interdiction patrols of the sea lanes.

Extremely difficult weather conditions hampered such operations on 29 and 30 January 1971, but the men on the ships involved rose to the occasion and accomplished the successful transfer of 100 tons of food without incident.

Conducting the search in heavy seas and beneath leaden grey overcast skies, Vega's efforts were uncrowned with success, as she found no trace of the distressed ship.

Vega eventually visited Sasebo, from 17 to 20 March, before she got underway for Pearl Harbor, en route to her ultimate destination of Alameda, California.

Making port at the Naval Air Station, Alameda, on 6 April, Vega later served from 13 to 17 May as host ship at San Francisco for HMCS Terra Nova.

Completing these modifications on 23 July, the ship conducted a program of type training off the California coast from the 26th through the 30th, before she sailed north to call at the annual Sea Fair at Seattle, Washington.

During a subsequent refit, again carried out at San Francisco's Triple "A" Shipyard in the summer and again in the fall of 1971, Vega received modifications that further improved her cargo-handling capacities.

Returning to Subic Bay to reload on 31 March, she set sail for the second increment of "Eagle Pull," rejoining the forces in the Gulf of Thailand on 5 April.

Operation Frequent Wind was launched to evacuate Americans, at-risk Vietnamese and third country nationals, lest they be left behind and fall into communist hands.

Both Vega and Harold E. Holt made full speed ahead for the area, while American forces soon mobilized to gain the release of the ship and its crew from the hands of the Cambodians.

Arriving on the 15th, Vega stood by to provide services while Harold E. Holt moved in and delivered a detachment of the 1st Battalion 4th Marines]], who boarded the container ship.