This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Daniel L Arnes, CMDCM
to remember
Wynn, Hugh John, CDR USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Visalia, CA
Last Address Rosarito, Baja California
Date of Passing Aug 01, 2012
Location of Interment Lindsay Cemetery - Lindsay, California
Hugh J. Wynn, retired Commander in the United States Navy, passed away quietly in his home in Rosarito, Baja California, on Wednesday, August 1, 2012. Hugh was born in Visalia, California, on November 11, 1936 to Vernon and Georgianna Wynn. He attended the Stone Corral Elementary School his early years and from sixth grade through high school he attended Lindsay schools where he graduated from Lindsay High School in 1954. After College of the Sequoias and U.C. Berkley, Hugh graduated from Navy flight school in Pensacola, Florida, where he also met and married his wife Dian. Hugh served his country for twenty-seven years as an officer in the United States Navy; he was stationed in many parts of the world including Guam, the Mediterranean, Japan and Vietnam. While in Vietnam, Hugh was a member of the courageous Navy Seawolves that were commissioned and decommissioned in Vietnam, not known by many except by those that served and by the sailors and ground forces who owe their lives to their courage and devotion. Hugh was a pilot of a Helicopter Gunship and belonged to a squadron that flew 120,000 missions into the Mekong Delta, which in a year would average 600 missions per pilot. The Seawolves of HA(L) 3 (Helicopter Attack (Light) Three) is the only Navy Squadron to ever fly in combat and is the most decorated Navy Squadron in history.
Published in Visalia Times-Delta on September 14, 2012
Description This Campaign period was from 1 May to 30 June 1970. The allied push into Cambodia during the spring of 1970 brought the SEALORDS forces into a unique operational environment. At 0730 local time on 9 May, 10 days after ground troops crossed the border, a combined Vietnamese-American naval task force steamed up the Mekong River to wrest control of that key waterway from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.
The flotilla, led by a Vietnamese naval officer, was composed of American PCFs, ASPBs, PBRs, HAL-3 and VAL-4 aircraft, Benewah, Askari, Hunterdon County, YRBM 16, YRBM 21 and 10 strike assault boats (STAB) of Strike Assault Boat Squadron 20, a fast-reaction unit created by Admiral Zumwalt in 1969. The Vietnamese contingent included riverine assault craft of many types, PCFs, PBRs, and marine battalions.
Naval Advisory Group personnel sailed with each Vietnamese vessel. By the end of the first day, Vietnamese naval units reached the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, while to the south the combined force stormed enemy-held Neak Luong, a strategic ferry crossing point on the river. For political reasons, no U.S. personnel were allowed past Neak Luong, midway to Phnom Penh.
Although the American component pulled out of Cambodia by 29 June, the Vietnamese continued to guard the Mekong and evacuate to South Vietnam over 82,000 ethnic Vietnamese jeopardized by the conflict.
