James P. Hunter

Job:
Medium:
Beats Covered:
Gender:
Local or Foreign:
Freelance:

Hunter, 25, was a staff sergeant and journalist with the 2nd
Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. He was killed by an improvised
explosive device while covering his unit’s foot patrols in Kandahar. He was the first Army journalist
killed in action in Afghanistan
since U.S.
military operations began in October 2001, according to CPJ research.

Hunter would escort visiting journalists at times, but
Kimberly Warren, editor of The Fort
Campbell Courier
, who worked with Hunter for about three years, said he
frequently filed stories and photographs for her paper. The Courier serves troops stationed at Fort
Campbell (on the border of the U.S. states of Kentucky
and Tennessee)
and the base’s surrounding civilian communities. The Associated Press quoted
Hunter’s colleagues as saying that Hunter also wrote, edited, and designed a
monthly magazine. Hunter was on his first deployment to Afghanistan
when he was killed. He had served twice in Iraq,
Warren said.

In a column in The Courier, Warren wrote: “As Hunter’s editor, I knew what he enjoyed to do and what he was good at doing. I was able to read every word that Hunter wrote and look at every fantastic photo that he took over the past three years we worked together. I can tell you he truly loved to do stories during his deployments. He loved to be out on the front lines with the soldiers.”