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Jack D. Hunter (born 1921) is an American author and artist, who is best known for writing the novel The Blue Max, which was turned into a film (The Blue Max).

Hunter was born in Hamilton, Ohio June 4, 1921. Hunter was the son of a paint color evaluator at DuPont; ironically he is color blind. He graduated with BA in Journalism from Penn State University in 1943. During World War II he joined the Infantry, but when he could not recognize tracer colors he was transferred to counter intelligence in a move that spared him the fate of all others in his infantry class - death on Omaha Beach during D-Day.

Because he spoke German (having taught himself and then studied it in college), Hunter was sent to Germany just after the war ended. The Allies had discovered that some high-ranking Nazis had gone underground and were waiting until the political atmosphere settled down, then they would re-infiltrate the German government. As a 24-year-old lieutenant, Hunter, disguised as a Lithuanian black marketeer, engineered a sting called "Operation Nursery" which resulted in the arrest of over 1000 Nazis all in one night. (See Stars & Stripes [1]article, March 31, 1946). He was awarded the Bronze Star[2].

After the war, he worked in various journalistic capacities, as a public relations executive for Dupont, and as a speech writer in Washington D.C..^[1]

His first novel was The Blue Max, and the publisher remarked that, as a new author, they would not spend the money to have an artist paint a color cover for his book. Hunter volunteered to paint it himself, which eventually became a hobby and then a part time profession.^[2]

Jack D. Hunter is the author of 16 novels, but The Blue Max continues to be the most popular to this day.^[3]

He now lives in St. Augustine, Florida.

The Bruno Stachel Series

• The Blue Max ISBN 0-7351-0456-5
• The Blood Order ISBN 0-7351-0458-1
• The Tin Cravat ISBN 0-7351-0454-9

• The Expendable Spy ISBN 0-7351-0514-6
• One of Us Works for Them
• Spies, Inc
• The Terror Alliance ISBN 0-7351-0511-1
• Florida is Closed Today ISBN 0-8439-2172-2
• Judgement in Blood ISBN 0-7351-0510-3
• The Flying Cross ISBN 0-7351-0509-X
• The Potsdam Bluff ISBN 0-380-75356-1
• Tailspin ISBN 0-7351-0513-8
• Sweeney's Run ISBN 0-7351-0448-4
• Slingshot ISBN 0-7351-0451-4
• The Cure ISBN 0-7653-0648-4
• Addie (written under the pen name "Lee Thompson" ISBN 0-7862-3364-8

• Official Site

1. ^ Biography on DerRittmeiseter
2. ^ Biography on Official Site
3. ^ Amazon.com sales ranking figures

• Over the Front -- the quarterly issued by the League of WWI Aviation Historians. Volume 13, Number 3, Fall 1998. Article, "The Blue Max Revisited," by Jack D. Hunter, in which the author's autobiographical sketch tells how the novel came to be written and the impact it had on his life.

• Commendation of Commanding General to Chief, Counter Intelligence Corps, USFET, 12 April 1946, lauding Hunter's leadership of this investigation.

• A-Line stories, Associated Press and United Press, dateline Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday 31 March 1946, appearing in "Stars and Stripes" European Edition or any major US daily newspaper of that date.