''For the educator, please see

Charles Norfleet Hunter Charles Norfleet Hunter, more commonly known as Charles N. Hunter (January 9, ca. 1852 – September 4, 1931), was an American educator, journalist, and historian. Hunter actively engaged in several late nineteenth-century reform movements. In ...

'' Charles Newton Hunter (January 11, 1906, Oneida, New York - June 14, 1978,

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistic ...

) was the author of the book ''Galahad'' (1963) a first person account of the Burma Campaign in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Galahad was the code-name for the U.S. Army's 5307th Composite Unit (provisional), better known as Merrill's Marauders. ''"Colonel Charles N. Hunter had been with Galahad from the beginning as its ranking or second ranking officer, had commanded it during its times of greatest trial, and was more responsible than any other individual for its record of achievement."''

West Point

Hunter began his Army career as a West Point graduate. From page 169 of the West Point "Howitzer" Yearbook, Class of 1929, we learn that he was known to his classmates as "Newt" from his middle name, "Newton." He is described as having a "ruddy countenance, slightly tilted nose, sandy hair, and twinkling blue eyes carry an appeal that can pass unnoticed by no mortal lass."

WWII and Training for Burma

Following the Quebec meeting between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill a decision was made to create long range penetration groups to get behind the Japanese lines as a part of an overall Asian mainland offensive. Lieutenant Colonel Hunter, with three years of experience in the Philippines, two years in the Canal Zone doing jungle warfare training, and most recently in charge of the combat training course in the infantry school, Fort Benning, Georgia, was put in charge of the shipment of the new unit to India and their subsequent training. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Combined Arms Research Library

Merrill's Marauders and Burma

In February 1944, under command of Brigadier General Frank Merrill, 2,503 men and 360 mules began a 1,000 mile march - out of India, over the Patkai region of the Himalayas and deep into the Burmese jungle. But on March 29, General Merrill suffered his first heart attack and command returned to then executive officer, Colonel Hunter. Following months of forced marches through monsoon season, weakened by hunger and malnutrition, suffering from amoebic dysentery, malaria, various fevers, snake bite, scrub typhus, and fungal skin diseases they were reaching the end of their ability to continue. Captain Fred O. Lyons said the last thing keeping him going had been not letting Colonel Hunter down: August 3, 1944, following the last battle, Myitkyina was declared secure and on that day Col. Hunter was sent back to the United States. After five major battles and seventeen minor engagements only two men survived without being hospitalized or killed. One was a Lieutenant Phil Weld, Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race#The 1/OSTAR, 1980 who later became famous for his single-handed ocean racing of small sailboats. The other was Colonel Charles N. Hunter.

After the war

After

, Colonel Hunter was Deputy Chief of Staff of the 4th Army and Commanding Officer of Fort Sam Houston in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

, Texas. He retired to

, home of his wife, Don Mae, who died February 27, 1970, of heart failure. Of their three daughters, only his youngest, Sara is alive today. Anne died in 1959 and Sue in 1977.

Quotation

Bibliography

*Charles Newton Hunter, Galahad (San Antonio, TX: Naylor Co., 1963) *Charlton Ogburn, The Marauders (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956) *Charles N. Hunter, AGF Report of Overseas Observations with Units in C.B.I. February 17, 1945.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Charles N. American non-fiction writers 1906 births 1978 deaths United States Military Academy alumni United States Army Rangers People from Oneida, New York 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Historians from New York (state) American male non-fiction writers