Charles D. Hunt Papers

Charles Hunt was born on January 14, 1925 in South Carolina and enlisted in the Army at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 9, 1943 after completing four years of high school. He was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division and after basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, continued his training at Camp Hale, Colorado. Hunt recounts that in 1943 he was en route to Camp Hale from Fort Benning on a troop train and as he passed through a small town in Kansas he wanted to mail a letter to his mother. He taped five cents on the envelope and threw it out the window. An old man picked it up, bought a three cent stamp, taped the two cents change onto the envelope with the same piece of tape and mailed it to his mother. The envelope and two pennies are part of this collection.

Hunt was assigned to Company C of the 86th Battalion. He was transferred with the 10th Mountain Division to Camp Swift, Texas, before seeing action in Italy. He earned a Bronze Star for action in the Apennine Mountains and Po River Valley and achieved the rank of Private First Class. He returned to the United States and was discharged at Camp Carson, Colorado. Hunt worked in an automobile garage and various small businesses. He learned to fly after the war. Hunt was married and divorced from his first wife and later married Jewell Barton. Charles Hunt died on January 14, 2008 at Greenville, South Carolina.