Lt. Comdr. Joseph Hunt Bourland

Joseph Hunt Bourland was raised far from the ocean in Quail and attended school in Clarendon, graduating from Clarendon High School. But the smell of salty water must have reached the Bourland Ranch! Joe received his appointment to the United States Naval Academy after spending one year of college at Texas A&M University.

This excerpt from the Academy’s 1933 Lucky Bag (senior yearbook) tells us more about Joe’s life before entering the Academy as well as his successes at the Academy:

Joe hails from the wilds of the Texas Panhandle where his boyhood days were spent in the embrace of the great open spaces. Mother Nature proved to be a very adept teacher for Joe, which is perhaps one of the of the reasons why he can always be found at the head of his class. After graduation from high school and a year’s intensive and successful study in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M, Joe yielded to the call of the sea…His slow manner of speech is apt to conceal, at first meeting, the eager and active spirit that lies beneath... With a pleasing personality and a ready sense of humor, Joe always has a good audience for his stories, but he’s never too busy to listen… In his spare time, he reads a great deal. He enjoys seeing a good movie and dislikes bridge. He’s a true friend and a real classmate and all of us who know him predict a great future for the lad!

While at the Academy, Joe was named Regimental Commander, the highest cadet honor. Following graduation, Joe was assigned to the USS Maryland, but his passion was submarines. After two years with the surface Navy, Joe volunteered for submarine duty. Following course instruction, he was assigned to Submarine S-41 with the Asiatic fleet. Joe found time during this assignment to also marry his long-time sweetheart, Jerry Peppard from New York. The wedding took place in Shanghai.

In May 1942, Joe was assigned as the Executive Officer of the USS RUNNER, a newly commissioned submarine. While aboard the RUNNER, he was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action as Assistant Approach Officer during her first patrol when the RUNNER sank three Japanese freighters and damaged two additional ships in the waters adjoining Palau with no significant damage to the RUNNER.

A year later, May 1943, Lt. Comdr. Joseph Hunt Bourland took over as the skipper of the RUNNER. The RUNNER departed Midway on May 27, 1943, for her third war patrol, assigned to the waters off northern Japan. After her departure, there was no further communication from the RUNNER.

Lt. Comdr. Hunt and his crew of 77 men and officers were declared “overdue and presumed lost in July 1943. The RUNNER was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on October 30, 1943. Japanese records examined after the war indicate the RUNNER sank the Japanese cargo ship Seinan Maru on June 11. A record of Japanese antisubmarine attacks found following the war contains no mention of the RUNNER. The most likely theory is that the RUNNER was destroyed in a Japanese mine field.

Unfortunately, Joe’s death was not the Bourland family’s only sacrifice during World War II. Joe’s brother, 1Lt. Lacy Noel Bourland, US Army Air Force, died of a heart attack at his post in Fresno, California. Three other brothers, W. George Bourland (US Naval Academy 1938), Dr. James Edward Bourland, and Fred Witt Bourland followed their big brother Joe into service in the US Navy.

Lt. Comdr. Hunt, 32 years old, was survived by his wife, Jerry, his son, David Lawrence (1940), and his daughter, Joanne (1942). The Silver Star Medal was awarded posthumously in February 1946. The medal was presented to five-year-old David Lawrence Hunt for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action.” David added to the Bourland family’s legacy of service to the country and followed in his father’s footsteps. Capt. David Lawrence Hunt graduated from the US Naval Academy and retired from the Navy after serving as a pilot during the Vietnam War.