Brigadier General Kenneth Newton Walker was a United States Army aviator and a U.S. Army Air Forces general. He exerted a significant influence on the development of airpower doctrine. He was shot down and killed leading a daylight bombing raid over Rabaul, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
About Kenneth Walker in brief
Brigadier General Kenneth Newton Walker was a United States Army aviator and a U.S. Army Air Forces general. He exerted a significant influence on the development of airpower doctrine. He was shot down and killed leading a daylight bombing raid over Rabaul, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Walker was born in Los Cerrillos, New Mexico, on 17 July 1898 to Wallace Walker and his wife Emma née Overturf. He enlisted in the United States. Army in 1917, after the American entry into World War I. He trained as an aviator, and became a flying instructor. He supported the creation of a separate air organization that is not subordinate to other military branches. 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. He died in action on 5 January 1943, while flying a DH.4 DH5 bomber over the island of Rabaul in New Guinea. He is survived by his wife, Emma, and their two children. Walker is buried in Denver, Colorado, in a plot of land that was once owned by the Colorado National Guard. He also leaves behind a wife and a son, William. Walker, Jr., who served in World War II as a pilot and served in the Air Corps Tactical School. Walker also leaves a daughter, Susan, who was a graduate of the University of California’s School of Military Aeronautics. Walker died of complications from a heart attack on 6 January 1943. He leaves behind two sons, William, Jr. and William, III, and a daughter-in-law, Susan Walker, who served with him in the Philippine Air Force during the Second World War.
Walker served as a command pilot, instructor, supply officer, and post adjutant in the Philippines. He later served as an instructor at the Air Service Flying School in Fort Sill, Texas. In 1920, Walker became one of many officers holding wartime commissions to receive a commission in the Regular Army. In 1924, he married Marguerite Potter Potter, a sorority member and sociology graduate at the Norman Potter campus of Oklahoma University. In 1923, he became Commander of the 28th Bombardment Squadron. In 1925, he crashed an Airco DHco DH4 DH4 on the way to the Philippines and was awarded a Silver Star for his bravery. In 1929, Walker graduated from the Air corps Tactical School in 1929. He participated in the doctrine of industrial web theory, which called for precision attacks against carefully selected critical industrial targets. He became part of a clique known as the \”Bomber Mafia\” that argued for the primacy of bombardment over other forms of military aviation. In 1936, he was one of four officers assigned to the Air War Plans Division, which was tasked with developing a production requirements plan for the war in the air. The AWPD-1 plan called for creation of an enormous air force to win the war through strategic bombardment. This resulted in a doctrinal clash between Walker and Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, an attack aviator.
You want to know more about Kenneth Walker?
This page is based on the article Kenneth Walker published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
