Ships
- USS Farragut (DD-348) Captain, 15 April 1941 – 25 August 1942
George Porter Hunter was born in Philadelphia on 22 September 1900. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1922 and began a career that took his household, at different times, to Boston, Bath in Maine, Long Beach, and Honolulu. In July 1926 he and Andrea Wright Adie had a son, George Porter Hunter Jr., in Boston. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 July 1937.
On 15 April 1941 he relieved George Washington Welker as commanding officer of the destroyer Farragut. The ship was already working from Pearl Harbor, and under Hunter she spent the months before the war screening carriers of the Pacific Fleet. He was still a lieutenant commander when he took command.
Hunter was ashore on liberty when Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. Farragut was moored in a nest with Aylwin, Dale, and Monaghan at buoy X-14 in East Loch, with Destroyer Division Two. Lieutenant Edwin K. Jones, her engineer officer and the senior officer on board, took her clear of the nest and down the channel. Her guns engaged aircraft that came within range. A fighter strafed the ship abreast of Hickam Field, leaving slight damage on deck and no casualties. Witnesses on board credited Chief Daniel Bushe with bringing down a dive bomber with a .50-caliber machine gun. The commander of Destroyer Flotilla One ordered Hunter, by word of mouth, to take charge of the destroyer Hull. He took Hull to sea that morning, with Lieutenant D. J. Wagner embarked with him. On 13 December he signed Farragut’s report of the raid as her commanding officer.
On 8 December Farragut met the carrier Enterprise and joined the screen. Through early April 1942 she worked in Hawaiian waters and on escort and antisubmarine runs between Oahu and San Francisco. Hunter was promoted to commander on 1 January 1942.
On 15 April 1942 Farragut sortied with Task Force 11 as that force moved to meet the Japanese advance toward New Guinea. She screened carriers in the Coral Sea operation and entered Cid Harbour, Australia, on 11 May, then helped escort convoys along the Australian coast. On 21 June 1942, while he was still in the destroyer, he was advanced to temporary captain.
On 7 July 1942 Farragut sailed with Task Force 61, the expeditionary force bound for Guadalcanal and Tulagi. Hunter remained in command through the landings in early August and the first weeks of the campaign in the southern Solomons. On 25 August 1942 he turned the ship over to Henry Dirk Rozendal. He died in Sarasota, Florida, on 10 May 1982.