A Hunter's Story Of War

Pat Smith

William H. “Bill” Hunter is an excellent subject for a Veterans Day column. He spent World War II on an island few people had heard of and even fewer could spell or pronounce. “Kwajalein Island is part of the Marshall Islands,” he said. “It’s the largest island and the one furthest south of the Kwajalein Atoll. It’s a couple thousand nautical miles southwest of Honolulu. ”

You probably know Bill from his years at Hunter Pharmacy, or for the speeches he gave for Memorial Day at South Park Cemetery, as Republican County Chairman, member and Past President of Rotary, Councilman-at-large, Big Blue Booster Club, Presbyterian Church elder, American Legion member or as a recipient of the Community Service Award by the Chamber of Commerce.

A 1937 graduate Greensburg High School, he was at Indiana University when he joined the Air Force ROTC. “In June 1941 the U.S. Army Air Force had just started with a few planes at the time,” he said. “There were a few ROTC programs so I joined when I.U. started one. “ It was a good move because at that time young men couldn’t get a job. Employers knew they would be leaving and they would have to hire and train someone else.

He was at the air base depot at Middletown, PA on December 7, 1941 when several of the men decided to visit the nearby Gettysburg Cemetery where the Civil War battle had been fought 78- years before. “That’s where we were when we heard what had happened at Pearl Harbor. We knew then that our country had to go to war.”

Bill said the warehouses that covered the approximate 200 acre site at Middletown were filled with every kind of aircraft part, from the smallest to the largest part that any plane would need to be repaired or maintained.  Their motto was, “Keep Them in the Air.”  Bill was a Second Lieutenant at that time.

In 1943 he was sent overseas and spent a few days on Johnston Island AFB on the way to his destination. Many of those who were in the Pacific during World War II landed on Johnston Island.  With its more than 600 acres it had a long runway where many planes could land for a stopover and for refueling. Bill has never forgotten the gooney birds he saw there. “Their name seemed quite accurate,” he said.  Johnston Island later became a place for nuclear weapons testing but visitors to the island today would still find gooney birds and albatrosses.

His destination was Kwajalein Island where great efforts were made to keep the troops happy because it was such a desolate spot. “Even though the island seemed to be thousands of miles from anywhere there was little complaining by the troops. Our food wasn’t too bad and we had no trouble getting enough. The men would throw a grenade into the water and get enough fish to feed a thousand men. All the cook had to do was find new ways to prepare the fish.”

Bill said when they first landed on the island they had no idea it would be such a crucial spot. The island was to be supplied with anything that was needed to keep a plane flying but it took a long time to build up the supplies for a base that far from anything. “It was vital to the country and the pilots that we have a complete inventory as fast as possible because that was the only way our planes could stay in the air.”

Going to Japan B-29’s would start from Hawaii then to Kwajalein, then to Guam, Saipan or Tinian then to the target. Coming back the planes would leave with wounded from Guam, Saipan or Tinian before s topping at Kwajalein and then on to Hawaii. In May 1945, after an ambulance plane landed on Kwajalein Island to refuel, Bill received word that someone on the plane wanted to see him. He boarded the plane and found his brother Oliver who had been injured when his ship The Longshaw had been hit while off the shore of Okinawa.  The brothers were able to visit for nearly an hour before Oliver’s plane took off.

After five years in the Air Force Bill returned to finish pharmacy school but joined the reserves. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He married Marjorie Day and the couple has four children: sons Herb (also a pharmacist and columnist for the Daily News) and Army Lieutenant Colonel Tom Hunter who served two tours in Iraq, two in Korea, one in Egypt, one in Honduras and is at present at Fort Benning, Ga. Bill and Margie’s daughter Helen is an elementary teacher in Colorado Springs, CO married to Patrick Mills, a retired Navy P-3 pilot who also served in Iraq; and Mollie, a flight attendant for American Airlines out of Miami, FL.

Next week something else about Bill you didn’t know.

The Our Hero’s tree at our library is outstanding. Check it out and also the Optimist Avenue of Flags around town today. The one in my yard looks magnificent.

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