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 Hunter, Navy photo

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!)

Fred Hunter’s Seabees badge

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.

Fighting Seabee (2018)