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Colonel Sanford B Hunt Military Biography Sanford B. Hunt, Colonel, U. S. Marine Corps (Retired) was born on October, 18, 1915, in Newark, New Jersey. His family migrated to California in 1924. His father, grandfather and great grandfather were majority owners and editors of the NEWARK SUNDAY CALL (Newark Call Printing and Publishing Co.) in Newark, New Jersey. As a youth Sanford's interests were divided between amateur radio and horses. He was a Petty Officer (radioman) 3rd class in the U.S. Naval Reserve (1934). His interest in horses led him to spend a year working as a ranch hand in Arizona (1935) and Colorado (1936) before returning east to Newark, New Jersey. He became employed in the newspaper and magazine distributing business and was later hired as a reporter and advertising solicitor by the Newark Sunday Call. During the course of his employment he resigned from the Naval Reserve and joined the Marine Corps Reserve (1940 - October). Shortly after joining he was called to active duty as a Private and performed duties with the Marine Corps as a radio operator in Quantico, Virginia and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He attended Cryptographic Repair School (top secret) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard early in 1942, one of two Marines selected from the Corps for this mission. In 1942 while serving with the 1st Marine Division in New Zealand he received a field commission to 2nd Lieutenant. Assigned as an Assistant Division Signal Officer, he participated in the assault and seizure of Guadalcanal. During combat operations on Guadalcanal Island Lt. Hunt established and commanded the first U.S. Naval Radio Station on captured foreign soil (Radio NGK). For his achievement in establishing the base radio station on Guadalcanal on Aug. 7, 1942, when personnel designated to do so failed to land, and keeping it in operation until Sept. 15, 1942, when other personnel took over, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Combat V. He was subsequently promoted to 1st Lieutenant (1943). Before leaving Guadalcanal with the 1st Division, Lt. Hunt was assigned duties as Signal Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Division and remained in that billet until he was transferred to the 1st Marine Amphibious Corps, Noumea, New Caledonia from Melbourne, Australia, where the division was recuperating. From New Caledonia he was sent to the 3rd Marine Division on Guadalcanal where he participated in landings on Emirau Island and Bougainville in the Northern Solomon Islands. (Promoted to Captain 31 January 1944) Immediately after the Bougainville operation he returned to the United States (May 1944) and taught Naval Communications and cryptography in the Marine Corps' first Communication Officer's School at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia. There he married Helen Louise Smith of Lubbock, Texas, a Marine Corps communications sergeant (Apr 1945) and soon thereafter was sent to the 1st Marine Division in Tientsin, China as Assistant Staff Secretary. He later served as Communication Officer, HQ U.S. Marine Corps, Arlington, VA (Nov 1947 - Aug 1950). There he spent 33 months, additional duty, as a member of the Joint Communication Electronics Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Promoted to Major on 1 January 1949) Subsequent tours of duty included:
(Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 12 April 1955) Duties after the United Nations war in Korea were:
(Promoted to Colonel 1 July 1963). Commanding Officer, Marine Corps Communication-Electronics Schools, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego (1965-1967) Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego (1966-1967) While in San Diego Col. Hunt participated in community activities and in particular a working association with city and county educators for the purpose of building a computer data base to provide career guidance for pre-college students in the San Diego area. Following the San Diego tour of duty he was ordered to duty at Headquarters, III Marine Amphibious Force, DaNang, Vietnam, where he was assigned as the Communications-Electronics Officer, later Assistant Chief of Staff, (G-6), Communications-Electronics. (See note below). This command was unusual in size and scope in that III MAF consisted of two Marine Divisions, three Army Divisions, one Marine Aircraft Wing, a Korean Marine Brigade and miscellaneous combat support and service support units including Army aviation and a U.S. Navy shore command. Additional responsibility fell to III MAF for coordination with, and technical advice to the Vietnam armed forces in the Vietnamese I Corps tactical zone. Communication personnel under III MAF command and/or technical control numbered some 15,000 Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Korean Marines and civilians (1967-68). For his service in Vietnam Col. Hunt was awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States, the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Vietnamese Honor Medal, First Class, by the South Vietnamese Government. After serving a year as Chief of Staff, V Marine Expeditionary Force, FMF Pacific at Camp Pendleton, California (22 May 1968), he was retired for reasons of physical disability on 1 July 1969 and permanently disability retired on 1 March 1973. He had served more than 32 years with the U.S. Armed Services. His duties had taken him from Cuba to Tientsin, China, the British Isles, Europe, the Mediterranean and Red Sea areas, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. He spent the remainder of his life in Lubbock, Texas with his wife, Helen, daughter Leslie Ann Hunt-Bond and Leslie's two children. Leslie's husband lives in Mallorca, Spain. Son Sanford IV, retired from government service after five years with the United States Marine Corps and United States Marine Corps Reserve (active) and 28 years with the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, having served in foreign posts for more than 20 of his 32 years of service, including postings in Vietnam, elsewhere in Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Col. Hunt was a Marine Corps Pistol Expert (.45 caliber Colt semi-automatic) and a Rifle Sharpshooter. The colonel's past positions and activities include:
He was a Boy Scout Commissioner in Virginia and California. His last paid employment was as a Special Deputy Sheriff, San Diego County California where he was awarded the Sheriff's Department Distinguished Service Medal after 9 years of service. Col. Hunt retired after 9 years of volunteer service with the Lubbock Police Department on Jan 31, 1996. He was a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International, past President of the Poway CA Rotary Club and a member of the Metropolitan Rotary Club of Lubbock. He was an active genealogist. HONORS and DECORATIONS
Letters of commendation and appreciation were received from:
*************************************************************** NOTABLE TRIVIA!
Footnote: "*In February 1968 at the urging of Colonel Sanford B. Hunt, Communications-Electronics Officer, III MAF, Lieutenant General Robert E. Cushman, Jr., Commanding General, III MAF re-designated the CEO Section, the G-6 Section. This was done in recognition of the increased coordination and technical control demanded of an expanded corps-level tactical situation brought on by the Tet offensive. This was the first time in Marine Corps history that communications-electronics was elevated to "G" section status, and it continued for the remainder of the war.-. (Col Sanford B. Hunt and Maj James Connell, Comments on draft MS, 12Dec83 (Vietnam Comment File). See also III MAF Directories, Jan-Feb68 in III MAF ComdCs, Jan-Feb68."
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