John Hutchison Hester (11 September 1886 – 11 February 1976) was a major general in the United States Army who commanded the 43rd Infantry Division during World War II.

[2] He served with the rank of lieutenant colonel as professor of military science and tactics at the University of Minnesota until the end of September 1933, when he was appointed executive officer of the 65th Infantry Regiment in Puerto Rico.

Hester spent the next two years there, before he was ordered back to the United States and assigned to the Operations and Plan Section at the War Department General Staff.

[3] At the end of March 1941, Brigadier General Hester was transferred to Camp Wheeler, Georgia, where he took command of the Infantry Replacement Training Center.

His final assignment was the post of commanding general of the Infantry Replacement Training Center at Camp Croft, South Carolina, where he arrived on 26 June 1944.