WWII vet encourages young people to enlist in the military
BY BECKY UEHLING
GRANT TRIBUNE
It’s been a long time since 98-year-old Howard Hunter, a former Venango resident, enlisted in the Navy during WWII. But, he said, one thing remains as true today as it did then— the Military is still good road for a young person to follow.
“I learned a lot in the 18 months I was enlisted,” Hunter said from his home in Holyoke where he and his wife, Betty, retired after he served for more than 30 years as the General Manager of what was Dudden Elevator in Venango. “I went into the military as a kid and I came out as an adult.” Hunter is the oldest living WWII veteran for the Legion in Venango and the VFW in Holyoke, he said.
Coming from a family of military men, Hunter decided to enlist in April 1945 at the age of 17 while still in high school in Lincoln. The Navy let him finish high school, and in June he was called to active duty, going to basic training in Chicago, and was then stationed in San Francisco. Although he desired to be trained in electronics, he instead trained to be a diesel mechanic.
“The military cut out the electronics program once the war was over in August 1945, so that is why I was trained to be a diesel mechanic,” he said.
While in San Francisco, Hunter was part of the Navy’s Construction Battalion, also called CBs or Seabees. The Seabee sailors are the military’s construction force, providing military engineering and construction capabilities worldwide for both combat and humanitarian missions. Specifically, Hunter served on a Landing Craft Unit (LCU), which is a flat-bottomed boat used to transport vehicles, equipment, and troops from a ship to shore.
Along with serving as the mechanic on his craft and being in charge of maintaining it, he was tasked with missions that Hunter called “Liberty Parties.” According to the Navy’s website, Liberty is an authorized, short-term absence from duty that is separate from “leave” and is not charged against leave time.
“I was tasked with going out to the ships that were docked and bringing guys in for a night on the town, and then taking them back out to the ship at the end of the night,” he said. When asked if he learned anything from this work experience, Hunter said, “Yeah, not to drink!”
Instead of drinking on his time off, Hunter would instead hitch-hike to Merced, Calif., to see family, and even hitchhiked to Nebraska once to see Betty, who was his fiancé at the time and still living in Lincoln. Hunter said he estimates he hitchhiked a total of 15,000 miles during those years, and for the most part he did not feel threatened, but was respected by everyone who gave him rides.