MacArthur's Airmen - Kenneth N. Walker
 Brigadier General Kenneth Newton Walker commanded V Bomber Command, Fifth Air Force, during the early stages of World War II before being lost in raid on Rabaul in January 1943, for which he posthumously received the Medal of Honor.
Walker was one of the leading authorities on air power in the years before World War II. Born in New Mexico in 1898, Walker enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917, receiving his flying wings and commission in 1918. He served as a flight instructor at various air fields in the Southwest before going to the Philippines in late 1922 to head the Air Intelligence Section based at Camp Nichols. After returning to the United States in 1925,
Walker spent the next several years at Langley Field, Hampton, VA, in various capacities, including commander of the 11th Bomb Squadron. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Walker attended the Air Corps Tactical School and the Command and General Staff College. In 1935, Walker – now a Major – was sent to Hamilton Field, CA, where he served as Intelligence and Operations Officer, 7th Bomb Group, and later as commander of 9th Bomb Squadron. Beginning in
early 1938, Walker was sent to Hawaii where he would remain until the eve of World War II, serving as, among others, commander of 18th Pursuit Group.
In January 1941 Walker was recalled to Washington, DC, to serve as Assistant Chief of the Air War Plans Division. It was during his time with the War Plans Division that Walker and three others developed the blueprint for the war against Germany – AWPD-1 – in only nine days.
In July 1942 he was promoted to Brigadier General and reassigned to combat duty in Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Theater. Two months later Gen. Walker was given command of V Bomber Command of MacArthur’s Fifth Air Force. Walker was quite popular with the men of his command, as he himself did not observe the traditional separation of officers from enlistedmen. The General would often mingle with his airmen, standing with them in the “chow line,” leading one of his men to remark that Walker was “the best soldier I ever knew, from any point of view.” Walker habitually accompanied his bombers on their raids against enemy targets, particularly the port of Rabaul, New Britain. Although he thought that this was the best way for him to observe the effects of his tactics, it earned for him the ire of Fifth Air Force boss George Kenney, who eventually ordered Walker not to go on the bombing raids.
However, Walker disobeyed orders and climbed into the cockpit of B-17 San Antonio Rose of the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, for a mission against Rabaul on January 5, 1943. When Kenney learned that Walker had disobeyed orders, he remarked to MacArthur, “When Walker gets back here, I’m going to officially reprimand him and send him to Australia on leave for a couple of weeks.” MacArthur replied to the effect that if Walker did not return he’d receive the Medal of Honor.
Walker would not receive Kenney’s reprimand, as his plane was shot down by enemy fighters defending Rabaul, but neither the wreckage nor his body was ever found. However, evidence has recently been found which suggests that Walker may have survived the crash and been taken captive by the Japanese. However, this has never been confirmed and he was officially listed as “Missing in Action.”
 In late March 1943, the Medal of Honor was presented by President Roosevelt to Walker’s oldest son, Kenneth, Jr., for his father’s service with Fifth Air Force. The citation reads:
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.
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