Lest We Forget

Wunder Beach During the Battle of Hue

By John Nesbit

Chief,

These photos were all taken by me on May 24, 1972. I was an ET aboard USS St Louis (LKA-116). My Condition 1-Alpha station was aboard one of the Mike boats to service the PRC-45 radio aboard. Our Mike boat carried a bunch of young Navy UDT sailors to Wunder Beach. Their job, upon hitting the beach was to conduct sabotage, primarily wiping out the electrical grid.

B-52’s had softened Wunder Beach for us, as you can see in a couple of these photos. We got our UDT boys to the beach under enemy mortar fire. They ran up the beach and disappeared into the bush. I was a peacenik from California while in the Navy.

When they lowered our Mike boat over the side on the davit, our XO leaned over the side and hollered at me “Hey Nesbit? do you have a sidearm?” “No Sir,” I replied, and so he leans over and hands me a .45 caliber pistol. And my outlook on the war changed.

Mike boat from St Louis with bomb bursts on the beach in the background

Prepping for insertion

USS Newport News (CA-148) The last of the 8 inch gun WWII Heavy Cruisers