Sixty-eight years previously he was one of the first Americans to land on Omaha Beach on the world-changing day of 6th June 1944.
It turned out to be a good thing as some of the Army medics drowned during the Omaha Beach invasion. They had an additional 40 to 50 pounds of weight to carry after filling up the vest pockets with supplies.
The son of a minister and a devout Christian, Nesbitt escaped death a few times.
While waiting to go on to the beach, he stood aboard an explosive-laden landing ship. An aircraft buzzed over, flew out to sea and returned to drop three bombs around the ship.
“If they (the bombs) had been one or two feet closer, I would not be here,” Nesbitt said.
“I believe God wanted me to experience D-Day because it has had such a profound influence in my life. Because of the lessons I learned on the bloody sands of Omaha Beach, I was better able to minister to the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical needs of those who came to me for help,” Nesbitt wrote in “Lessons Fom D-Day.”
Nesbitt was a Medical Officer with the US 7th Naval Battalion, providing temporary care for the wounded until they could be evacuated back to the UK. Descended from a long line of ministers, doctors and military men, Nesbitt feared that he had not given enough to the dying men on the beach, despite dodging bullets and mortar fire to treat injured soldiers.
"I was no more a hero than the farmer raising wheat, the housewife welding ships, or the labourer digging ditches."
"I didn't even choose to go into one of the bloodiest battles that the world has ever seen; I was given orders to go. And like any officer or sailor, I obeyed my orders and did my duty to the best of my ability."
While waiting to go on to the beach, he stood aboard an explosive-laden landing ship. An aircraft buzzed over, flew out to sea and returned to drop three bombs around the ship.
“If they (the bombs) had been one or two feet closer, I would not be here,” Nesbitt said.
"There were heroes on Omaha Beach that bleak, cold day. Like the Army sergeant who strapped 70 pounds of plastic explosives on his back and ran through 50 yards of intense enemy fire to blow a hole in a seawall that was blocking the advance of our tanks and troops."
Nesbitt saw some gruesome sights that day, "The scene was appalling. At the water's edge, body parts of our own troops floated, and corpses rolled in and out with the waves like logs. Hundreds of dead and dying were scattered over the vast stretches of beach."
"The vision of hundreds of casualties lying quietly in rows, lonely, in pain, silently pleading for someone to comfort them, lingers in my mind. If only I had seen the need to go down those rows and kneel beside each men, say a prayer, offer an encouraging word, take a message for a loved one."
This led to Nesbitt re-evaluating his priorities. When he returned to medical practive in California after the war, rather than treating ailments, he decided to treat the whole patient - both the physical symptoms and the psychological ills which accompanied those problems. This was fulled by his regret at not providing spiritual as well as medical comfort on D-Day.
He helped to found Refugees International, a group that worked with victims of such conflicts and travelled to Thailand to work with refugees from the Cambodian wars and led the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship programme at the University of Wyoming.
Nesbitt summed up the importance of D-Day towards the rest of his life
“I believe God wanted me to experience D-Day because it has had such a profound influence in my life. Because of the lessons I learned on the bloody sands of Omaha Beach, I was better able to minister to the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical needs of those who came to me for help,” Nesbitt wrote in “Lessons Fom D-Day.”
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