Page 40 - DFCS NEWS MAGAZINE 2020-1

Air Commando Lt. Col. Walter D. “Dean” Hunter, USAF (Ret.)
Marine in Korea to SAC B-47s during the Cold War to Jungle Jim T-28s in Vietnam
By Lew Jennings
Lt. Col. Walter D. “Dean” Hunter, USAF, (Ret.). Six years in the Marine Corps and 20 years as a Command Pilot in the Air Force. Decorations include the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with “V” for Valor, Bronze Star with “V” for Valor and 7 Air Medals.
Activated as a new Marine reservist with no training and still a teenager, Private Dean Hunter landed ashore in General MacArthur’s second wave at Inchon, Korea on 15 September 1950. Days later, he killed an enemy soldier with a .45 caliber pistol that his Mom had secretly hidden for him in a See’s Candy box when he departed aboard ship in San Diego. It never left his side.
The enemy had crept into his tent in the middle of the night and were slitting the throats of sleeping Marines, when he awoke to find an enemy soldier on top of him about to do just that. He fired his .45 pistol point blank, killing the soldier. His action alerted others and saved many in his platoon.
W. Dean Hunter’s story as a warrior started back then in 1950. He would become a Staff Sergeant and F4U Plane Captain before leaving the Marine Corps to attend college and become a commissioned officer through Air Force ROTC. He graduated flight school at the top of his class and was selected for fighter jet training in the F-86. However, General LeMay’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) was looking for top pilots to fly their troubled B-47 six-engine bombers and Hunter was diverted to SAC as a B-47 co-pilot and Command Pilot for several years.
He yearned to be a warrior again and volunteered for a secret assignment to a new outfit flying WWII vintage airplanes in combat. He was surprised when he was accepted and allowed to leave SAC, as once you were in the Strategic Air Command, you never left. He knew this must be a really important assignment.
His Wing Commander spun the dial on the safe and extracted a large manila envelope. “I’ve never seen orders like this in my entire military career”, he said, as he handed Hunter the sealed envelope to be opened only in the Commander’s presence. Issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency, his new orders were
stamped “SECRET”. He was to leave the Base within 24 hours and fly to Wichita, Kansas. Upon arrival he was to take a taxi to the local train depot and, with a locker number and key also provided in the envelope, obtain further instructions. He took a train to Blue Eye, Missouri, then an 18-hour Greyhound bus ride to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. A Sergeant met him there and drove him to a secret location on Eglin Air Force Base, where he found himself assigned to fly highly modified vintage T-28D attack aircraft with the 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron.
At 0300 the next morning, his Commando training began with 10-mile run, followed by a quick breakfast and then a daily exercise program including black belt martial arts. The afternoons were dedicated to flying interdiction missions in the T-28s. The operations tempo bordered on the extreme, which was a hallmark of being in the Air Commandos. After nearly three months of training, he was directed by an Intelligence Officer to swallow a pill he had been given (actually an M&M covered peanut) and with that, he would forget ever attending training at Eglin and return to his SAC base.
A few months later he received a call from the Commander of the 6th Fighter Squadron, inviting him to come to Hurlburt Field at Eglin again to join the First Air Commando Squadron. They would undergo two more months of intense training in the T-28Ds, performing low level bombing runs, strafing runs, and shooting rockets, before deploying on a TOP SECRET assignment to Vietnam as part of Operation FARM GATE. Dean Hunter would join the elite Air Commandos, the first USAF fighters in Vietnam, where he flew 166 combat missions in the T-28.
On 26 April 1964 he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross when he repeatedly placed himself in harm’s way attacking enemy anti-aircraft positions and saving the crew of a crippled C-123 Provider.
On 25 June 1964 he was awarded the Silver Star for three back-to-back combat missions, silencing AAA gun positions, saving a Special Forces Camp from being overrun, and credited with 400 enemy killed. That action is currently under review for upgrade to the Medal of Honor.
40 / DFCS News Magazine / SUMMER 2020