The Duxbury Bay AVP38, Greenwich Bay AVP41, and Valcour AVP55 deployed from Norfolk, Virginia to perform Flagship COMIDEASTFOR duties East Of Suez from 1949 to 1966. The ships operated out of Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf. Each ship made port calls in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean as far east as what was East Pakistan, (Now the independent republic of Bangladesh) to South Africa and everywhere in between.

The ships were painted white and were refurbished for extended operations in the Mid-East in the early 50's along with reductions in armaments. All of ships had the aft 40mm AA quad mounts replaced by a extended deck house for the flagship offices. Only the Greenwich Bay retained its forward 5" mount. All the ships had the main deck covered with wood for the length of the superstructure. The ships' profile or silhouette was distinguished by the second mast which was the aft crane which was used for seaplane and boat operations.

When the ships were back in the USA, The Little Creek Amphibious Base Docks in Norfolk, Virginia is where the ships were berthed in between Middle East deployments and other assignments, training excersizes and anything else that they could think of to keep us off dry land. Many of the older and married men called Norfolk their home. Sometimes a ship would go over to or return to the main Naval Operations Base (NOB) in Norfolk to be alonside on of the ship tenders for repairs or refit. In the final years the ships were berthed at Destroyer - Submarine Base that was up the bay from the NOB.