Ed Walker (American veteran)
Encyclopedia
Ed Walker was an American
veteran
of World War II
, businessman, publisher and writer
. Walker was the last surviving member of Castner's Cutthroats
, a regiment consisting of just sixty-five men who performed reconnaissance
missions in the Aleutian Islands during World War II
. Castner's Cutthroats was the unofficial name of the 1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon.
. He enlisted in the United States Army
in 1937 and was stationed for three years in the Territory of Hawaii
. He soon became interested in Alaska
through reading a library book about the territory and an article published in The Saturday Evening Post
. He reenlisted in the Army with the specific goal of being transferred to Alaska.
at Chilkoot Barracks
, also known as Fort William H. Seward
, which was the only U.S. military base in the Territory of Alaska at the time he arrived. Walker submitted several applications, before finally being transferred to Fort Richardson, now known as Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
. There he joined a group of elite Alaskan Scouts called Castner's Cutthroats
, named after Col. Lawrence Castner, an Army intelligence officer who formed the regiment. Walker trained with Castner's Cutthroats, who carried their provisions and lived off what they could find in the Alaskan wilderness, such as seafood
. Walker was trained in surveying
and Morse code
. The sixty-five men served in reconnaissance throughout the Aleutian Islands during World War II, including the Battle of the Aleutian Islands
.
The Japanese forces occupied the islands of Attu
and Kiska
the day before Walker's 25th birthday in 1942, beginning the Aleutian Islands Campaign. Walker and thirty-six of the scouts were stationed in Anchorage at the time, when they received erroneous reports of a Japanese attack on the city. The next morning, the members of Castner's Cutthroats sailed on a yacht from Anchorage to the Aleutian Islands. However, the United States Navy commandeered the yacht at Kodiak
. Walker and twenty-one other Alaskan Scouts then boarded a submarine, which they used to make their first landing at Adak Island
. Walker was armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle
, which meant that he was among the first of the Cutthroats to make landfall at Adak and secure the surrounding beach. However, a two-man American boat next to their submarine exploded just offshore from Adak. Walker recalled the accident in a 2008 interview, "We got about 200 yards from the submarine, and the boat blew up. It put both of us in the drink...The boat was about to go to the bottom, and we didn't want to go with it. We managed to stay afloat, and luckily the submarine, rather than turning to the left and going back into the Pacific, it turned inland," Walker continued, explaining a line was thrown to the scouts as it passed because the submarine was unable to stop. I hung on to that, and of course we were at the fantail of the sub, and there's a series of welded pipes that protect the propeller and we each got a hold of one of them, and every time we went through a wave, we just stopped breathing and closed our eyes and came back up...They sent a man out, and they had to crawl because everything on the submarine was slippery. They crawled out and helped us to get our gear, because we still had our packs and we went on in to the sub."
and Ladd Army Airfield during the bases' early years. He also worked in Good News Bay at a mining
facility. Walker was a proponent of Alaskan statehood
during the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1960, Walker moved to Valdez, Alaska
, where he worked as a home builder. Once the 1964 Alaska earthquake struck the area, Walker switched his focus to the reconstruction of the city. He was elected to the Valdez city council
duirng the rebuilding efforts and the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline through the region. His last major Valdez construction project was the former Village Inn Motel, which is now the Mountain Sky Hotel and Suites.
Walker published his own newspaper
, called Walker's Weekly, while living in Delta Junction, Alaska
. He authored several books, including writings on his experiences with Castner's Cutthroats. He was interviewed by writer Jim Rearden, who included Walker in his book, Castner’s Cutthroats: Saga of the Alaska Scouts. Walker also wrote an eclectic mix of books concentrating on his other life experiences. He wrote the nonfiction historical book, Twenty Women Who Made America Great, following the death of his longtime wife, Frances. A hip replacement
patient, Walker wrote Hip-Hip Hooray! on life before and after the procedure.
In 2008 and 2009, photos and quotes from Walker and other members of the regiment appeared in an exhibit, Castner’s Cutthroats: Forgotten Warriors, which opened at the Anchorage Museum. The last three surviving members of Castner’s Cutthroats - Walker, retired Brig. Gen. Earl Acuff, and William "Billy" Buck - gathered at the opening of the exhibition
on September 28, 2008. Walker was also interviewed for a documentary
on the Alaskan Scouts, which aired on the History Channel.
at the time. The couple married at a ceremony in Fort Richardson on April 29, 1944. They had four children - Bob, Suzy, Kathleen and Bill. The family moved to Fairbanks
, Alaska, after World War II. Frances Walker worked as a writer for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
. They moved in Valdez, Alaska
, in 1960.
Walker resided at the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer, Alaska
, for most of the last quarter century of his life. He died at Providence Alaska Medical Center
in Anchorage, Alaska
, on October 28, 2011, at the age of 94. He was survived by three of his chilren, Bob Walker, Suzy Walker and Bill Walker.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, businessman, publisher and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. Walker was the last surviving member of Castner's Cutthroats
Castner's Cutthroats
Castner's Cutthroats was the unofficial name for the 1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon , also known as Alaskan Scouts. Castner's Cutthroats fought during World War II and were instrumental in defeating the Japanese during the Battle of the Aleutian Islands...
, a regiment consisting of just sixty-five men who performed reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
missions in the Aleutian Islands during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Castner's Cutthroats was the unofficial name of the 1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon.
Early life
Ed Walker was born on August 28, 1917, in San Juan Bautista, CaliforniaSan Juan Bautista, California
San Juan Bautista is a city in San Benito County, California, United States. The population was 1,862 at the 2010 census, up from 1,549 at the 2000 census. The city of San Juan Bautista was named after Mission San Juan Bautista...
. He enlisted in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1937 and was stationed for three years in the Territory of Hawaii
Territory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.The U.S...
. He soon became interested in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
through reading a library book about the territory and an article published in The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
. He reenlisted in the Army with the specific goal of being transferred to Alaska.
Castner's Cutthroats
Walker was stationed with the Army infantryInfantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
at Chilkoot Barracks
Fort William H. Seward
Fort William H. Seward, also known as Chilkoot Barracks or as AHRS Site No. SKG-001 is a site at Port Chilkoot in Haines, Alaska. It was the last of a series of 11 military posts established in Alaska during the gold rush era....
, also known as Fort William H. Seward
Fort William H. Seward
Fort William H. Seward, also known as Chilkoot Barracks or as AHRS Site No. SKG-001 is a site at Port Chilkoot in Haines, Alaska. It was the last of a series of 11 military posts established in Alaska during the gold rush era....
, which was the only U.S. military base in the Territory of Alaska at the time he arrived. Walker submitted several applications, before finally being transferred to Fort Richardson, now known as Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is a United States military facility adjacent to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is an amalgamation of the former United States Air Force Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010.-Overview:The...
. There he joined a group of elite Alaskan Scouts called Castner's Cutthroats
Castner's Cutthroats
Castner's Cutthroats was the unofficial name for the 1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon , also known as Alaskan Scouts. Castner's Cutthroats fought during World War II and were instrumental in defeating the Japanese during the Battle of the Aleutian Islands...
, named after Col. Lawrence Castner, an Army intelligence officer who formed the regiment. Walker trained with Castner's Cutthroats, who carried their provisions and lived off what they could find in the Alaskan wilderness, such as seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
. Walker was trained in surveying
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
. The sixty-five men served in reconnaissance throughout the Aleutian Islands during World War II, including the Battle of the Aleutian Islands
Battle of the Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands Campaign was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, in the Pacific campaign of World War II starting on 3 June 1942. A small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska, but the remoteness of the islands and the difficulties of weather and terrain meant...
.
The Japanese forces occupied the islands of Attu
Attu
Attu may refer to:*A common name for the Dosa in Telugu*Attu Island in Alaska*The Battle of Attu, the primary land battle in the Aleutian Islands campaign of World War II, which took place on Attu Island in May 1943....
and Kiska
Kiska
Kiska is an island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska located at . It is about long and varies in width from - Discovery :...
the day before Walker's 25th birthday in 1942, beginning the Aleutian Islands Campaign. Walker and thirty-six of the scouts were stationed in Anchorage at the time, when they received erroneous reports of a Japanese attack on the city. The next morning, the members of Castner's Cutthroats sailed on a yacht from Anchorage to the Aleutian Islands. However, the United States Navy commandeered the yacht at Kodiak
Kodiak
Kodiak may refer to:In media and literary works:*Kodiak , a television program that aired Fridays on ABC during the 1974-75 television season in the United States...
. Walker and twenty-one other Alaskan Scouts then boarded a submarine, which they used to make their first landing at Adak Island
Adak Island
Adak Island is an island near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Alaska's southernmost town, Adak, is located on the island...
. Walker was armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle
Browning Automatic Rifle
The Browning Automatic Rifle was a family of United States automatic rifles and light machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed...
, which meant that he was among the first of the Cutthroats to make landfall at Adak and secure the surrounding beach. However, a two-man American boat next to their submarine exploded just offshore from Adak. Walker recalled the accident in a 2008 interview, "We got about 200 yards from the submarine, and the boat blew up. It put both of us in the drink...The boat was about to go to the bottom, and we didn't want to go with it. We managed to stay afloat, and luckily the submarine, rather than turning to the left and going back into the Pacific, it turned inland," Walker continued, explaining a line was thrown to the scouts as it passed because the submarine was unable to stop. I hung on to that, and of course we were at the fantail of the sub, and there's a series of welded pipes that protect the propeller and we each got a hold of one of them, and every time we went through a wave, we just stopped breathing and closed our eyes and came back up...They sent a man out, and they had to crawl because everything on the submarine was slippery. They crawled out and helped us to get our gear, because we still had our packs and we went on in to the sub."
Post-war career
Walker settled permanently in southern Alaska following World War II. He and another man, Con Frank, co-founded the Arctic Block Construction Co. in 1947. Together, Walker and Frank constructed most of the first permanent buildings at Eielson Air Force BaseEielson Air Force Base
Eielson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska and just southeast of Moose Creek, Alaska....
and Ladd Army Airfield during the bases' early years. He also worked in Good News Bay at a mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
facility. Walker was a proponent of Alaskan statehood
Alaska Statehood Act
The Alaska Statehood Act was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 7, 1958, allowing Alaska to become the 49th U.S. state on January 3, 1959.-History: the road to Statehood:...
during the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1960, Walker moved to Valdez, Alaska
Valdez, Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
, where he worked as a home builder. Once the 1964 Alaska earthquake struck the area, Walker switched his focus to the reconstruction of the city. He was elected to the Valdez city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
duirng the rebuilding efforts and the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline through the region. His last major Valdez construction project was the former Village Inn Motel, which is now the Mountain Sky Hotel and Suites.
Walker published his own newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, called Walker's Weekly, while living in Delta Junction, Alaska
Delta Junction, Alaska
Delta Junction is a city in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 897. The city is located a short distance south of the confluence of the Delta River with the Tanana River, which is at Big Delta...
. He authored several books, including writings on his experiences with Castner's Cutthroats. He was interviewed by writer Jim Rearden, who included Walker in his book, Castner’s Cutthroats: Saga of the Alaska Scouts. Walker also wrote an eclectic mix of books concentrating on his other life experiences. He wrote the nonfiction historical book, Twenty Women Who Made America Great, following the death of his longtime wife, Frances. A hip replacement
Hip replacement
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi replacement. Such joint replacement orthopaedic surgery generally is conducted to relieve arthritis pain or fix severe...
patient, Walker wrote Hip-Hip Hooray! on life before and after the procedure.
In 2008 and 2009, photos and quotes from Walker and other members of the regiment appeared in an exhibit, Castner’s Cutthroats: Forgotten Warriors, which opened at the Anchorage Museum. The last three surviving members of Castner’s Cutthroats - Walker, retired Brig. Gen. Earl Acuff, and William "Billy" Buck - gathered at the opening of the exhibition
Exhibition
An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within museums, galleries and exhibition halls, and World's Fairs...
on September 28, 2008. Walker was also interviewed for a documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
on the Alaskan Scouts, which aired on the History Channel.
Personal life
Walker met his future wife, Frances P. Walker;, while she was employed by the Army Corp of Engineers, who were constructing the Alaska HighwayAlaska Highway
The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II for the purpose of connecting the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon...
at the time. The couple married at a ceremony in Fort Richardson on April 29, 1944. They had four children - Bob, Suzy, Kathleen and Bill. The family moved to Fairbanks
Fairbanks
Fairbanks may refer to:Places in the United States*Fairbanks, Alaska, city*Fairbanks, California, unincorporated community in El Dorado County*Fairbanks, Mendocino County, California, former settlement*Fairbanks, Indiana, unincorporated community...
, Alaska, after World War II. Frances Walker worked as a writer for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper that serves the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the United States state of Alaska. It is the farthest north daily newspaper in the United States, and...
. They moved in Valdez, Alaska
Valdez, Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
, in 1960.
Walker resided at the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer, Alaska
Palmer, Alaska
Palmer is the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the state of Alaska, USA. It is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 5,937....
, for most of the last quarter century of his life. He died at Providence Alaska Medical Center
Providence Alaska Medical Center
Providence Alaska Medical Center is located at 3200 Providence Drive in Anchorage, Alaska, is Alaska's largest hospital, has 341 beds and more than 500 physicians on staff. It is a full-service facility, featuring the state's most advanced medical equipment and treatment systems available...
in Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, on October 28, 2011, at the age of 94. He was survived by three of his chilren, Bob Walker, Suzy Walker and Bill Walker.