51�Թ�

He was last stationed at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois, which has since been decommissioned.

The inaugural members began their training at Chanute Field in central Illinois, about 16 miles north of Champaign, Illinois.

Upon learning that an all-Black aviation unit was training nearby, at Chanute Field — at the time, the squadron only included mechanics and support personnel — he applied to the Tuskegee program and was accepted as a pilot.

Writing about airplanes in the March 1904 issue of Popular Science Monthly, Octave Chanute proclaimed: “The machines will eventually be fast, they will be used in sport, but they are not to be thought of as commercial carriers.”

Hunter’s best friend on the team was Paul Lindblad, a guy from Chanute, Kansas, an avid hunter and fisherman.