She returned to Charleston in October to organize for the annual Atlantic Fleet exercise. After three days in Charleston, Wainwright obtained underway for gunnery and missile shoots on the Atlantic Fleet weapons range near Puerto Rico. The warship spent the primary three days of 1969 winding up her third and closing tour of duty as PIRAZ ship and then set a course for the Philippines, the primary pause on her way house. Her operations from her home port, including Operation "Rugby Match" workouts within the West Indies, lasted till she sailed for the western Pacific on 24 June. Following native operations there, the guided missile destroyer embarked upon her first deployment to the western Pacific on 10 April. On 25 August, the guided missile destroyer stood out of Charleston, certain for her third and closing deployment to the western Pacific along side the Vietnam War. USS Wainwright (DLG/CG-28), a Belknap-class destroyer chief, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for members of the Wainwright household