Historical information

R54257 Chief Electrician Weapons Radio, Raymond Henry Hunt, Royal Australain Navy. Raymond Henry Hunt's unit: HMAS Hobart. His Vietnam Service was from 22nd March 1968 - 17th June 1968.
In the early hours of 17 June 1968 Hobart was part of a naval task unit operating in the vicinity of Tiger Island north of the demilitarized zone off the east coast of North Vietnam. An unidentified aircraft was detected approaching the ship from the vicinity of Cap Lay and although evaluated as a ‘friendly’ it continued to close, firing a missile that struck Hobart amidships on her starboard side. The warhead passed through the main deck, seriously damaging several compartments, while the body of the missile passed through the outer skin of the aft funnel before ending up embedding itself in the forward funnel. In its passage shrapnel from the disintegrating missile killed Ordinary Seaman Butterworth who was closed up at the ships exposed anti aircraft control position above the bridge. Able Seaman JR Parker and Ordinary Seaman RF Davidson also suffered injuries.
As Hobart's crew raced to action stations a second and third missile hit the ship. The second missile entered the transom without detonating, destroying the gunner's store before breaking up in the engineer's workshop and penetrating the after seaman's mess. The third missile hit the ship in the same area as the first, passing through one of the ship's fan spaces, the missile director equipment room and Tartar checkout room. Chief Electrician RH Hunt was killed in this attack and several sailors injured.

Physical description

Five Replica Medals are placed horizontally on a single line of a blackboard that sits on a black stand. The first four medals are silver with four different ribbons. The last medal is gold and white with green and white alternate ribbon.