Remembering Grandpa Fred with a Horse Named Fighting Seabee
We own some thoroughbred racing horses and naming these horses has been a lot of fun. We have chosen to honor family members with several of them. One of our newest is Fighting Seabee in honor of our grandfather, Fred C. Hunter (who is biologically my husband’s grandfather, but I definitely claim him!).
Fred, who was born in 1920, proudly served in the 42nd Naval Construction Battalion in the Aleutians and Philippines during WWII. The sailors who serve in naval construction building necessary runways, roads, and bridges, are called Seabees. (By the way, I only recently understood this nickname: the initials for Construction Battalion are “C.B.” and they are part of the navy so they are “Sea”bees!)
This weekend, Fighting Seabee had his first race, and he won convincingly! We know grandpa would have loved to see this colt named in his honor and would have been Fighting Seabee’s biggest fan.
There is no one prouder than a Seabee. We consider every Seabee as brother or sister even though our DNA doesn’t match. We thank you for Fred’s service and sacrifice he made in the U. S. Navy Seabees. And we are proud to have Fighting Seabee to cheer for. We wish him good luck and a long healthy career.
Thank you, Jon! By the way, Fighting Seabee is racing tomorrow – Wednesday, August 28th – at Saratoga. I hope you’ll cheer him on!
I was watching horse racing on TV and just saw Fighting Seabee win at Saratoga! As a current Seabee I was cheering loudly. In the post race interview with Mr. Leeds he shared that you donate some of the prize to help Veterans with PTSD. A big THANK YOU for for helping our brothers and sisters in arms. Hope this horse has a long and successful racing career! HOORAH! CAN DO!
Thank you, Seth… for cheering, for leaving me a message, and mostly for serving our country!
Dana, Thanks for honoring your Gpa in such an original way. I’m a Trustee for the Seabee Historical Foundation and the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association and I often share posts about Fighting Seabee on Facebook. Thanks for your contributions to support vets. Kathryn Donovan
Thank you, Kathryn. We are proud to be supporting the Seabee Historical Foundation and know Gpa would be tickled to have this horse named for him… and see him win! We are thankful we can give back to vets in this way, too.
Dana
Donovan!
That name goes well with the SeaBees also.
Dana – I’m on the Seabee Historical Foundation board of Trustees with Kathryn and work closely with Jon. Was going to Keeneland tomorrow for a family gathering having just arrived from VA. Found out Fighting Seabee is running tommorrow. I’m excited and wish you the best and rest assured I’ll be cheering! Thanks so much for honoring your Seabee grandfather and all of us Seabees. Ooh-rah!
Kevin, We just arrived earlier today from Texas and are looking forward to a great race tomorrow. We are proud to honor Grandpa Fred – and Seabees everywhere – with this amazing “Can Do!” horse. Thanks for the cheers!
Great of you guys to do this in his honor, I had money on the horse , as I come across his name and being an old seabee it was a no brainer to make the bet, nice to hear the back story on the horse.
Rob, thanks for the comment and thank you for your service. We are proud to have named this horse for our special grandpa and glad to honor all Seabees through him.
Dana