SAMUEL H. HUNTER, JR., LTJG, USN

Samuel Hunter, Jr. '38

Date of birth: August 20, 1914

Date of death: December 10, 1941

Age: 27

Lucky Bag

From the 1938 Lucky Bag:

SAMUEL HOWARD HUNTER, JR.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sam, Buzz

Sam hails from the forks of the Ohio, the town where they grow them rough and ready or as he puts it: "I'm rough, tough, and ugly." But that's bad dope. He is the big-hearted easy-going kind with whom all hands get along. Not a savoir but a determined man, he always licks the academics in the end. Class and battalion football have drawn him in the fall, in the winter he undertakes the duties of a boxing manager, but in the spring he devotes himself to the more ennobling influences in a young man's life. The fellow is long-suffering, a sterling quality for a Navy man. He always has been and always will be what everyone of us should be: "A first class fighting man."

Batt. Football 4, 3, 2; Boxing Manager 4, 3, 2, 1; G.P.O.

SAMUEL HOWARD HUNTER, JR.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sam, Buzz

Sam hails from the forks of the Ohio, the town where they grow them rough and ready or as he puts it: "I'm rough, tough, and ugly." But that's bad dope. He is the big-hearted easy-going kind with whom all hands get along. Not a savoir but a determined man, he always licks the academics in the end. Class and battalion football have drawn him in the fall, in the winter he undertakes the duties of a boxing manager, but in the spring he devotes himself to the more ennobling influences in a young man's life. The fellow is long-suffering, a sterling quality for a Navy man. He always has been and always will be what everyone of us should be: "A first class fighting man."

Batt. Football 4, 3, 2; Boxing Manager 4, 3, 2, 1; G.P.O.

Loss

Samuel was killed by a bomb that impacted USS Sealion (SS-195), moored next to his submarine (USS Seadragon (SS 194)), in Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines, on December 10, 1941.

He was the first American submarine casualty of the war.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

He graduated from David B. Oliver High School in 1932. He was Social Chairman for the 12B class, was on the Executive Committee for the Royal Loyal Historians, and played football. He graduated from Kiski Preparatory School the next year. He was a cousin of John/Jack Daub (‘36,) son of the headmaster of Kiski Preparatory School at Saltsburg, who lost his life in the torpedoing of the Reuben James on October 31.
His father was a bank clerk, mother Lizette, sisters Mary Elizabeth and Jessie Mae.

Samuel is buried in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial; his father was listed as next of kin.

Photographs

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.