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- The San Diego Union, California, Monday, April 16, 1990
Rear Admiral Henry Suerstedt
Retired Read Admiral, Server in Three Wars
Retired Rear Adm. Henry Suerstedt, 70, a veteran of three wars and a resident of Coronado, died Thursday at Balboa Naval Hospital after a long illness.
Rear Adm. Suerstedt retired from the Navy in 1973 after 32 years of service, including four tours of duty in Vietnam, action as a torpedo plane pilot in World War II and squadron leader on combat missions over North Korea during the Korean War.
He was born in Berkeley on Oct. 14, 1920, and educated in Oakland and San Francisco. His ambition was to be a pilot. During the 1930s he was a private in the U.S. Army Reserve, taking night college classes to qualify him for Navy pilot training in 1940.
He became an aviator in December 1941, flying in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war he joined the Navy as a torpedo plane squadron commanding officer. In 1949 he was assigned to the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics as a project officer for a new carrier-based attack aircraft, the Douglas Skyraider, which he helped prepare for the Korean War. In 1952 he led Skyraider combat missions over North Korea from the deck of the aircraft carrier Valley Forge. Beginning in 1960 he served four tours of duty in Vietnam, first as an officer responsible for training South Vietnamese pilots in the Skyraider. He became commanding officer of the amphibious cargo ship Union, and participated in six combat landings, including the major Marine Cor ps landing at Da Nang in 1965 in which he became acting commodore of the amphibious squadron, a first for a naval aviator. That same year he became commanding officer of a new assault transport helicopter carrier under construction, the Tripoli. He took the ship to Vietnam and participated in six more combat landings.
After another tour in Washington and promotion to rear admiral, he returned to South Vietnam as deputy commander of naval forces there. He also was deputy chief of naval operations of the South Vietnamese navy and naval liaison for Delta Military Assistance Command. In 1973 after retirement from the Navy, he took a position with the Harris Corp. in San Diego. He retired from that job in 1985. Some of his wartime decorations were the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was a member of the Tailhook Association, the Association of Naval Aviation and the Aerospace Museum. He served on the military affairs committee of the Chamber of Commerce.
He and his wife, Jo, would have celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary Friday.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the North Island Naval Air Station chapel. The body will be cremated and the ashes will be scattered at a later date in the Pacific Ocean from the USS Tripoli.
Besides his wife, Rear Adm. Suerstedt is survived by daughters Cynthia Norton of Lyons, Pa., and Candace Rehmet of Wimberly, Texas; and four grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the San Diego Hospice, 9797 Aero Drive, San Diego 92123 or to the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C.
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