Ships
- USS Alhena (AK-26) In command, 7 August 1942
Charles B. Hunt was born in Evanston, Illinois, on 4 December 1896. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the Class of 1919 and made his career in the Navy. Before the Second World War his home was in Pasadena, California. He retired as a rear admiral, died in Akron, Ohio, on 16 November 1965, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The command that defined his wartime reputation was the cargo ship Alhena. Built at Sparrows Point, Maryland, for the Robin Line, she had been laid down in June 1940 as the freighter Robin Kettering and launched in January 1941. The Navy purchased her at the end of May. On 15 June 1941, at Hoboken, New Jersey, she went into commission as Alhena (AK-26), and Commander Hunt took command.
After fitting out, Alhena settled into work along the Atlantic coast. In December 1941 she loaded at Boston for Argentia, Newfoundland, then filled her holds again at Brooklyn. In the middle of January 1942 she took additional cargo at Norfolk, returned to New York, and embarked troops. She sailed on 5 February, and the next day she was assigned to the Naval Transportation Service. Calling at Halifax, she reached Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 27 February and spent about two weeks landing her passengers, equipment, and supplies.
That spring Alhena returned to the United States, passed the Panama Canal, and made two voyages into the South Pacific. In July 1942 she joined the Pacific Fleet amphibious force preparing to open the campaign in the southern Solomon Islands. Hunt was in command on 7 August 1942, when Alhena put United States Marines and their equipment ashore at Guadalcanal. The unloading continued through 9 August. In the weeks that followed, the ship kept carrying supplies, equipment, and reinforcements into the same dangerous waters, and Japanese aircraft attacked her on each of those entries.
Near the end of September, south of Guadalcanal and bound for a base, Alhena was hit by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine. The explosion flooded the after part of the ship and put the propeller shaft out of action. Hunt kept her afloat and held her clear of a shoal near Rennell Island. Taken in tow, she reached Nouméa and then Sydney, where repairs lasted into the following June. During that yard period the Navy reclassified her as an attack cargo ship and gave her the hull number AKA-9, on 26 November 1942. Hunt was detached while the overhaul was still underway, and in December 1942 the executive officer, Commander Howard W. Bradbury, relieved him.
For his conduct as commanding officer through the Guadalcanal landings and the supply runs that followed, including the effort to save the torpedoed ship, Hunt received the Navy Cross. The citation, which styled him a captain, recognized repeated passages under bombing and torpedo attack and the seamanship that brought a badly damaged ship out for repair and later service. Alhena went on under other commanding officers, earned five battle stars, and was decommissioned at New York on 22 May 1946.