By September 1929, the runway and several buildings were ready and the city officially opened the new facility, known as Savannah Municipal Airport.

The airport became a part of Eastern Air Transport Incorporated air route on 2 December 1931, when Ida Hoynes, daughter of the Mayor, Thomas M. Hoynes, broke a bottle of Savannah River water on a propeller blade of an 18-passenger Curtiss Condor II during the christening ceremony.

On 30 August 1940, the United States Army Air Corps received approval to build a base at Hunter Municipal Airfield.

The 27th returned to Hunter, without personnel or equipment on 4 May 1942 after being severely depleted in strength during the Battle of the Philippines (1942), and subsequent combat in the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns (1942).

These groups included the: With the U-boat mission taken over by the Navy after mid-1943, Savannah AAB became a training base for Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber crews.

Marauder groups which received final combat training were: At the end of the war, Savannah AAB was used as a Separation Center for the discharge and furlough of service members returning from Europe.

Rather than see the Air Force move elsewhere, Savannah offered to exchange airfields with the federal government along with 3,500 acres (14 km2) of additional land around Hunter for future base expansions.

On 11 March 1958, a B-47E which departed Hunter on a simulated combat mission accidentally dropped a Mark 6 fission bomb minus its nuclear component near Florence, South Carolina.

The MATS Eastern Transport Air Force 63d Troop Carrier Wing, Heavy was assigned to Hunter from Donaldson AFB, South Carolina which was closing.

Beginning in 1955 Air Defense Command designated Hunter AFB as part of a planned deployment of forty-four Phase I Mobile Radar stations.

As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes.

At the time, the United States Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker, Alabama was operating at capacity and additional facilities were needed.

The headquarters of the Army Aviation School Element moved to Hunter from Fort Stewart, where it had been established during the summer of 1966.

The first class of Republic of Vietnam Air Force students began Advanced helicopter training at Hunter on 13 March 1969.

In 1973, Hunter AAF was deactivated, but it was later reopened in 1975, serving as a support facility for the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), at Fort Stewart.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency Download coordinates as: