Kenneth Walker (general)

For the British author, see Kenneth Walker (author).

Kenneth Newton Walker
Brigadier General Kenneth N. Walker
Nickname(s)	Ken
Places of Burial (markers only)	Arlington National Cemetery Manila American Cemetery, Philippines
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Army Air Corps
Years of service	1917–1943
Rank	Brigadier General
Service number	0-12510
Commands	11th Bombardment Squadron 9th Bombardment Squadron 18th Pursuit Group V Bomber Command
Battles / wars	World War II Kokoda Track campaign Battle of Buna-Gona Battle of Wau  †
Awards	Medal of Honor Distinguished Service Cross Silver Star Legion of Merit Purple Heart

Kenneth Newton Walker (17 July 1898 – 5 January 1943) was a United States Army aviator and a United States Army Air Forces general who posthumously received the Medal of Honor in World War II.

Walker joined the United States Army after his country entered World War I in 1917. He trained as an aviator and became a flying instructor. In 1920, he received a commission in the regular Army. Following postings to the Philippines and Hawaii, he graduated from the Air Corps Tactical School and served as an instructor there. He supported the creation of a separate air organization, not subordinate to other military branches. He was also a forceful advocate of the efficacy of strategic bombardment, publishing articles on the subject.

Shortly before the United States entered World War II, Walker was one of four officers in the Air War Plans Division, which was tasked with developing a production requirements plan for the war in the air. Together, they created the AWPD-1 plan, a blueprint for the imminent air war against Germany. The plan called for the creation of an enormous air force to beat Germany through strategic bombardment. In 1942, Walker was promoted to brigadier general and transferred to the Southwest Pacific, where he became Commanding General, V Bomber Command, Fifth Air Force. Walker frequently flew dangerous combat missions over New Guinea. On 5 January 1943, he was shot down and killed during a bombing raid over Rabaul.

Early life and World War I

Walker was born in Los Cerrillos, New Mexico, on July 17, 1898 to Wallace Walker and his wife, Emma née Overturf. His father left when Kenneth was young, and Emma raised him as a single mother. The family moved to Denver, Colorado, where Kenneth attended the Maria Mitchell School from 1905 to 1908, the Columbian School in Omaha, Nebraska from 1908 to 1912, and Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1913 he enrolled in the Omaha High School of Commerce, from which he graduated in June 1915. From January to June 1917 he attended the YMCA Night School in Denver, Colorado. On graduation, he commenced a course in business administration at La Salle Extension University.

Walker enlisted at Denver, Colorado on 15 December 1917 and took his flying training at the University of California's School of Military Aeronautics and at the pilot training base at Mather Field, near Sacramento, California. He received his Aircrew Badge in November 1918 and was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Service on 2 November 1918. He attended the Flying Instructor's School at Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas and became an instructor at the flight training center at Barron Field in Everman, Texas. In March 1919, he was posted to Fort Sill as an instructor at the Air Service Flying School. During 1918, the School for Aerial Observers and the Air Service Flying School were built at nearby Post Field. He remained there for four years as a pilot, instructor, supply officer, and post adjutant; he added combat observer to his command pilot rating in 1922.

Between the wars

Walker received a commission in the regular Army as a first lieutenant on 1 July 1920 but was reduced in rank to second lieutenant on 15 December 1922, a common occurrence in the aftermath of World War I when the wartime army was demobilized. He was promoted to first lieutenant again on 24 July 1924. Jokes circulated about his being the most senior first lieutenant in the Air Corps. While stationed at Post Field, Walker met Marguerite Potter, a sociology graduate of the University of Oklahoma at the Norman campus. The two were married in September 1922. For a honeymoon, they took a troop transport ship on 12 December 1922 to the Philippines, where Walker became Commander of the Air Intelligence Section at Camp Nichols. In April 1923, he became property officer of the Philippine Air Depot. At other times, he served as supply officer, adjutant, and depot inspector. In 1924, he was assigned to the 28th Bombardment Squadron. The couple eventually had two sons, Kenneth Jr., born in February 1927, and Douglas, born in January 1933. The marriage ended in divorce in 1934. Kenneth Walker remarried and had a son called John from his second marriage, but it too ended in divorce, shortly after John's birth.

Walker returned to the United States in February 1925 and became a member of the Air Service Board at Langley Field. He stayed at Langley until 1928, serving as adjutant of the 59th Service Squadron, commander of the 11th Bombardment Squadron, and operations officer of the 2nd Bomb Group. He graduated from the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field in June 1929. He then served as an instructor under Captain Robert Olds in the Bombardment Section of the Air Corps Tactical School until July 1933, both at Langley and at Maxwell Field, where the school relocated in 1931. Their influence was such that, during their tenure, bombardment achieved primacy over pursuit in the development of Air Corps doctrine. One of Walker's tasks was to rewrite the bombardment text. In an article entitled "Driving Home the Bombardment Attack", which was published in the Coast Artillery Journal in October 1930, Walker argued that fighters could not prevent a bombing attack and that "the most efficacious method of stopping a bombardment attack would appear to be an offensive against the bombardment airdrome." In November 1934, Walker and five other Air Corps Tactical School instructors were invited to testify on the military aspects of aviation before the Howell Commission on Federal Aviation. Walker and his colleagues presented arguments to support a separate air organization, not subordinate to other military branches.

At the time he was a student at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he graduated in June 1935. Walker published another professional article, entitled "Bombardment Aviation: Bulwark of National Defense". "Whenever we speak in terms of 'air force' we are thinking of bombardment aviation," he wrote, dismissing other forms of aviation. This was orthodox at the Air Corps Tactical School, which taught that "every dollar which goes into the building of auxiliary aviation and special types, which types are not essential for the efficient functioning of the striking force can only occur at the expense of that air force’s offensive power." Walker's major thesis was that "a determined air attack, once launched, is most difficult, if not impossible to stop when directed against land objectives." At the conclusion of his article, he called for the creation of an air force "as a force with a distinct mission, of importance co-equal to that of the Army and the Navy."

Walker was promoted to captain on 1 August 1935 and was temporary major from 20 October 1935 to 16 June 1936. He became temporary major again on 4 October 1938, the rank becoming substantive on 1 July 1940. After graduating from the Command and General Staff School he went to Hamilton Field, where he served as Intelligence and Operations Officer at the 7th Bomb Group and commander of the 9th Bombardment Squadron. In 1938 Walker commenced a three-year posting to Hawaii, where he became operations officer for the 5th Bomb Group at Luke Field, executive officer at Hickam Field, and finally commander of the 18th Pursuit Group at Wheeler Field.

World War II

Air War Plans Division

In January 1941, Major Walker returned to the United States for duty as assistant chief of the Air War Plans Division at the Office of the Chief of the United States Army Air Corps in Washington, D.C.. At this time Brigadier General Carl Andrew Spaatz was head of Plans and two of his assistants were now-Lieutenant Colonels Olds and Muir S. Fairchild, colleagues of Walker's from the Air Corps Tactical School. Walker was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel on 15 July 1941. In the June 1941 reorganization, Spaatz became chief of staff to the Commanding General, United States Army Air Forces, Major General Henry H. Arnold. Arnold appointed Colonel Harold L. George to head the Air War Plans Division. Walker joined George's planning team as the fourth member, along with Majors Haywood S. Hansell and Laurence S. Kuter. All were former instructors at the Air Corps Tactical School, and members of the so-called "Bomber Mafia".

The Air War Plans Division was tasked with developing a production requirements plan for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wanted an answer by 10 September 1941. Together they created AWPD-1 plan, a blueprint for the imminent air war against Germany, in just nine days in August 1941. The figures that they arrived at were truly staggering. They called for a bomber force of 98 medium, heavy and very heavy bomber groups, totaling 6,834 aircraft. Sixteen fighter groups would defend the bombers' bases. Should this bomber force prove insufficient to defeat Germany without a major land offensive, provision was made for a tactical air force of 13 light bomber groups, two photo reconnaissance groups, five fighter groups, 108 observation squadrons and 19 transport groups. They estimated that the whole plan would require 2,164,916 personnel, of whom 103,482 would be pilots. Due to poor security, verbatim extracts of AWPD-1 were published in the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers on 4 December. For the moment though, the United States had, as General Arnold put it, "plans but not planes".

The war in Europe had cast grave doubt on the Air Corps' doctrine that fighters could not shoot down bombers. In the Battle of Britain the British Royal Air Force had demonstrated that it could shoot down bombers, while its own bomber force had suffered such heavy losses over Germany that it had abandoned daylight bombing in favor of night raids. Nonetheless, the planners held firm in their belief that, since American bombers were better armed and armored than their British or German counterparts, the bombers would get through, even in daylight, and that enemy fighter strength could be destroyed on the ground by bombing airbases and factories. "Each of us," Kuter wrote years later, "scoffed at the idea that fighters would be needed to protect bombers, to enable bombers to reach their objective. In preparing AWPD-l, we stayed in that rut." In April 1942, Walker, who was promoted to colonel on 1 February 1942, was assigned to Operations Division of the War Department General Staff. After his death, he was awarded the Legion of Merit in recognition of his contributions as a staff officer.

Southwest Pacific area

Walker was promoted to brigadier general on 17 June 1942 and transferred to the Southwest Pacific, Walker flew to Australia in the company of Brigadier General Ennis Whitehead. Aware that he would be replaced soon, the commander of Allied Air Forces, Lieutenant General George Brett, sent the two newcomers on an inspection trip, where Walker learned a great deal. He joined three combat missions over New Guinea, experiencing for himself the difficulties that his aircrews faced. He also experienced an air raid in Port Moresby. For this, Walker was awarded the Silver Star. His citation read:

For gallantry in action over Port Moresby, New Guinea, during July 1942. This Officer took part in four different missions over enemy territory, each time being subjected to heavy enemy fire from anti-aircraft and fighter planes. The large amount of firsthand information gained by General Walker has proved of inestimable value in the performance of his duties. His complete disregard for personal safety, above and beyond the call of duty, has proved highly stimulating to the morale of all Air Force personnel with whom he has come in contact. Such courage and gallantry are in keeping with the finest American traditions and are worthy of the highest commendation.

A Boeing B-17 bomber.

After Major General George Kenney arrived in the theater, Walker was appointed Commanding General, V Bomber Command, Fifth Air Force on 3 September 1942, with his headquarters in Townsville, Queensland. At this time, the bombers were generally based in the Townsville area and staged through Port Moresby. In mid-September 1942, at the height of the Kokoda Track campaign, Kenney ordered Walker to Port Moresby for several weeks to direct the advanced echelon, in order to give Whitehead a rest and Walker more experience. In October, MacArthur gave Kenney a dressing down for flying over the Owen Stanley Range and Kenney in turn ordered Walker, Wilson and Whitehead not to fly any more missions. For a variety of reasons, all four of them eventually defied this order. On 9 January 1943, MacArthur issued a communiqué praising the forces under his command for the victory that had been achieved at Buna and announcing the award of the Distinguished Service Cross to twelve officers, including Walker.

The Southwest Pacific was not a promising theater of war for the strategic bomber. The bombers of the day did not have the range to reach Japan from Australia, and there were no typical strategic targets in the theater other than a few oil refineries. Thus, "the air mission was to interdict Japan’s sea supply lanes and enable the ground forces to conduct an island-hopping strategy." This set up a doctrinal clash between Kenney, an attack aviator, and Walker, the bomber advocate. The long-standing Air Corps tactic for attacking shipping called for large formations of high-altitude bombers. With enough mass, so the theory went, bombers could bracket any ship with walls of bombs, and do so from above the effective range of the ship’s anti-aircraft fire. The problem was that there were nowhere near enough aircraft in the Southwest Pacific to mount such a massive attack; a dozen or so bombers was the most that could be put together, due to the small numbers of aircraft in the theater and the difficulties of keeping them serviceable. The results were therefore generally ineffective, with heavy casualties. Kenney's suggestion that bombers conduct attacks from low level with bombs with instantaneous fuses received a negative reception from Walker. "Ken was okay," Kenney later recalled. "He was stubborn, over-sensitive, and a prima donna, but he worked like a dog all the time. His gang liked him a lot but he tended to get a staff of 'yes-men'. He did not like to delegate authority. I was afraid that Ken was not durable enough to last very long under the high tension of this show."

Senior Allied commanders in New Guinea in October 1942. Left to right: Mr Frank Forde (Australian Minister for the Army); General Douglas MacArthur; General Sir Thomas Blamey; Lieutenant General George C. Kenney; Lieutenant General Edmund Herring; Brigadier General Kenneth Walker.

On 3 January 1943, Kenney received intelligence from Allied Ultra codebreakers that the Japanese were about to attempt a reinforcement run from their main base at Rabaul to Lae, on the mainland of New Guinea, so he ordered Walker to carry out a full scale dawn attack on the shipping in the harbor before it could depart. Walker demurred; his bombers would have difficulty making their rendezvous if they had to leave Port Moresby in the dark. Walker recommended a noon attack instead. Kenney acknowledged Walker's concerns but was insistent; he preferred bombers out of formation to bombers shot down by the enemy fighters that were certain to intercept a daylight attack. Six B-17s and six B-24s—a maximum effort at the time—attacked Rabaul Harbor at noon on 5 January. Walker flew in the lead plane, B-17 #41-24453, nicknamed "San Antonio Rose", from the 64th Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Group, which was piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Jack W. Bleasdale, the group’s executive officer. Other officers on board included Major Allen Lindberg, the 64th Bombardment Squadron's commander; and Captain Benton H. Daniel, the co-pilot; 1st Lieutenant John W. Hanson, the navigator; and 2nd Lieutenant Robert L. hand, the bombadier. Major David Hassemer, the briefing officer for the mission, objected to Walker being in the same plane as the deputy group commander and a squadron commanding officer, but was overruled. They encountered heavy flak and continuous fighter attacks by apparently inexperienced Japanese pilots. Forty 500-pound (230 kg) and twenty four 1,000-pound (450 kg) bombs were dropped from 8,500 feet (2,600 m). They claimed hits on nine ships, totaling 50,000 tons. After the war, JANAC confirmed the sinking of one Japanese merchant ship, the 5,833 ton Keifuku Maru. Two B-17s were shot down, including Walker's.

Fred Wesche flew the 5 January mission over Rabaul. He later recalled:

On January 5th of 1943, I was on one of what most of us thought was a suicide mission.... The Japanese were getting ready to mount a large expeditionary force to relieve their garrisons on New Guinea, and Brigadier General Walker, who was the commanding general of the V Bomber Command there, was flying in the lead ship, and I was flying on his wing. When it was announced that it was going to be done in broad daylight at noontime, as a matter-of-fact, at low altitude, something like 5000 feet over the most heavily defended target in the Pacific almost...most of us went away shaking our heads. Many of us believed we wouldn't come back from it. Anyway, we went over the target and all of us got attacked. I was shot up. Nobody was injured, fortunately, but the airplane was kind of banged up a little bit. We had to break formation over the target to bomb individually and then we were supposed to form up immediately after crossing the target., but no sooner had we dropped our bombs that my tail gunner says, "Hey, there's somebody in trouble behind us" So we made a turn and looked back and here was an airplane, one of our airplanes, going down, smoking and on fire, not necessarily fire, but smoke anyway, and headed down obviously for a cloud bank with a whole cloud of fighters on top of him. There must have been 15 or 20 fighters. Of course they gang up on a cripple, you know, polish that one off with no trouble, but he disappeared into a cloud bank and we never saw him again. It turns out it was the general.

Arlington National Cemetery grave marker for Brigadier General Walker.

Kenny was furious when he discovered that Walker had not only changed the take off time without notice, but had also defied explicit orders by accompanying the mission. He told General MacArthur that when Walker showed up he as going to give him a reprimand and send him back to Australia on leave for two weeks. "Alright George," MacArthur replied, "but if he doesn't come back, I'm going to send his name in to Washington recommending him for a Congressional Medal of Honor." All available aircraft were sent to search for Walker, preventing attacks on the Japanese convoy as it headed for Lae. They managed to locate and rescue the crew of the other B-17 that had been shot down in the raid, but Walker's aircraft was not found.

The recommendation therefore went ahead. The Adjutant General, Major General James A. Ulio queried whether it was "considered above and beyond the call of duty for the commanding officer of a Bomber Command to accompany it on bombing missions against enemy held territory." Major General George Stratemeyer, the chief of the air staff, replied that it was. In March 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented Kenneth Walker Jr. with the medal in a ceremony at the White House. It was one of 38 Medals of Honor awarded to flying personnel of the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II. The citation read:

For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. As commander of the 5th Bomber Command during the period from 5 September 1942, to 5 January 1943, Brigadier General Walker repeatedly accompanied his units on bombing missions deep into enemy-held territory. From the lessons personally gained under combat conditions, he developed a highly efficient technique for bombing when opposed by enemy fighter airplanes and by antiaircraft fire. On 5 January 1943, in the face of extremely heavy antiaircraft fire and determined opposition by enemy fighters, he led an effective daylight bombing attack against shipping in the harbor at Rabaul, New Britain, which resulted in direct hits on 9 enemy vessels. During this action his airplane was disabled and forced down by the attack of an overwhelming number of enemy fighters.

Neither his body nor the wreck of the aircraft itself has ever been recovered. Walker was therefore listed on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines, where servicemen Missing in Action or Buried at Sea in the Southwest Pacific are commemorated. On 7 December 2001, a headstone marker was erected in Section MC-36M of Arlington National Cemetery to give family members somewhere to gather in the United States.

Honors and awards

Military decorations

File:TechnicalObserverWings.jpg

Command pilot
Combat Observer
Technical Observer
	Medal of Honor	Distinguished Service Cross
Silver Star	Legion of Merit	Purple Heart	World War I Victory Medal
American Defense Service Medal	American Campaign Medal	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal	World War II Victory Medal

Other honors

In January 1948, Roswell Army Air Field in Roswell, New Mexico, was renamed Walker Air Force Base. Walker Hall, and its Walker Air Power Room, at Maxwell Air Force Base, home of the Air Force Doctrine Development and Education Center, is also named after him. The Walker Papers is an Air Force Fellows program that annually honors the top three research papers produced by Air Force Fellows with the Walker Series award. The Walker Series recognizes the contributions each Fellow has made to research supporting air and space power and its use in the implementation of US strategic policy.

See also

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• List of Medal of Honor recipients

References

• Ancell, R. Manning; Miller, Christine (1996), The Biographical Dictionary of World War II Generals and Flag Officers: The US Armed Forces, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-29546-8
• Byrd, Martha (1997), Kenneth N. Walker: Airpower's Untempered Crusader (PDF), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, retrieved 6 January 2009
• Cate, James Lea; Williams, E. Kathleen (1948), Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (eds.), "Vol. I, Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942", The Army Air Forces in World War II, University of Chicago Press, pp. 151–193, retrieved 20 October 2006 {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help)
• Finney, Robert T. (1955), USAF Historical Study 100, History of the Air Corps Tactical School 1920–1940 (PDF), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University, retrieved 9 March 2009
• Fogerty, Dr Robert O. (1953), USAF Historical Study 91, Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers 1917–1952 (PDF), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University, retrieved 31 March 2010
• Kenney, George C. (1949), General Kenney Reports: A Personal History of the Pacific War (PDF), New York City: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, ISBN 0-91279-944-7, retrieved 20 February 2009
• Kreis, John F., ed. (1996), Piercing the Fog: Intelligence and Army Air Forces Operations in World War II, Bolling Air Force Base: Air Force History and Museums Program, ISBN 1410214389
• Rodman, Matthew K. (2005), A War of Their Own: Bombers over the Southwest Pacific (PDF), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University, retrieved 20 February 2009
• Tonnell, Brian W. (2002), Will the Bombers Always Get Through? The Air Force and its Reliance on Technology, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University, retrieved 9 March 2009
• Walker, Kenneth N. (August 1933), "Bombardment Aviation: Bulwark of National Defense", US Air Services (XVIII, no. 8): 15–19{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Watson, Richard L. (1950), Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (eds.), "Vol. IV, The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944", The Army Air Forces in World War II, University of Chicago Press, pp. 92–128, retrieved 20 October 2006 {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help)

External links

• "Pacific Wrecks – B-17F-10-BO "San Antonio Rose" Serial Number 41-24458". Retrieved 12 March 2010.