Jon Bernard was aboard sister ship when Kawishiwi was assigned as secondary recovery vessel, 200 miles downrange of the primary recovery carrier (Iwo Jima, as I recall) for some Apollo missions (I'd have to check which ones). We carried a full scale Apollo re-entry module & made practice approaches on it in mid-Pacific moderate sea conditions while under the watchful eye of  NASA supervisors. The Kawishiwi wasn't one to "stop on a dime" from Standard speed, and on a practice recovery during which I was the OOD, I brought it in too tight and a swell slapped it into our side, rupturing the orange flotation collar around it! Fortunately it didn't sink, but  after that I appreciated that Apollo re-entry flights always came close to their target and could be recovered with helo's.