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1st Lt. Joseph Martin Walker
Remembering a Fallen Hero
By Dale Welch
dale@hilltopexpress.net
1st Lt. Joseph Martin Walker’s name can be found chizzled on
the VFW Memorial Wall and also on the young U.S. Marine Reserve fighter pilot’s gravestone in the Welch Memorial Cemetery..
He was killed in July 1964, when his fighter jet crashed after take-off at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia.
Young Joe Walker was born and raised in Monterey. His dad, Julian Walker, originally from McMinn County, and mom,
Margaret Ledbetter Walker met back when Julian was working as a civil engineer for the survey crew laying out Highway 70 North
through Monterey. Finding the love of his life, Walker settled in Monterey and was, at one time, Monterey mayor
They
welcomed the birth of their only son, Joseph Martin Walker on April 22, 1939. The typical hometown boy, he enjoyed being
with friends, family and then, something in the back of his mind, he wanted to fly.
A Boy Scout, and eventually
an Eagle Scout, growing up, he took great pride in community, but also having lots of fun. His cousin, Bill Wiggins, recalled
on one scouting trip, Scout leader Robert McDonald loaded up his Jeep, and hitched on a trailer onto it and headed with his
scouts down Highway 84 down toward Calfkiller. The boys were riding in the back on the trailer. As the group headed around
one of the many curves, a trailer tire hit something along the side of the road. The next thing Wiggins remembered was Joe
Walker shinning a flashlight in his face and asking him if he was okay. “I can see your skull,” Joe told his cousin.
In all, Wiggins, William Woolbright, Austin Looper and others were injured. Scout leader McDonald was trapped under
the Jeep. But, the boys adrenaline kicked in and they got the vehicle off of him. Only Joe Walker escaped serious injury.
But he did have problems. He had landed in a patch of poison ivy. The next time Wiggins saw his cousin, Joe was blistered
from head to toe.
Joe and friends, including Larry Medley and Wayne Eldridge loved to drive “Chief”
Milton Nixon, the Monterey High School principal “crazy.” Nixon and Joe’s dad didn’t see “eye-to-eye”
when it came to politics, so that seemed to encourage Joe.
How did they drive “Chief” Nixon “crazy?”
One way was to place a note in an unsuspecting student’s text book with the threatening message “The Crab Strikes
Again.” It went on for quite some time, but, Wiggins recalled that Walker was eager to confess and did.
Walker was the wash boy at his father’s Pan Am Service Station, which set on the Southwest corner of E. Commercial Ave.
and S. Chestnut St. The station also served as the Trailways Bus station. Walker also at one time, had a little hobby shop
in the corner of his dad’s station, where he sold model cars and airplanes.
Walker transferred to the Georgia
Military Academy, in College Park, GA during his sophomore year. Afterward, as a United States Marine, he realized his dream
to fly.
The young man from Monterey turned into 1st Lt. Joseph Martin Walker, USMC Reserve and is fondly remembered
by some of his fellow pilots.One such fellow pilot, Jim Keith of the St. Louis, MO area said, “Joe Walker was a young
1st Lt. and one of the most respected pilots of our outfit, .a real down to earth guy who treated all of our enlisted personnel
with mutual respect.”
Keith said that Walker, Stan McCarthy, Bob Perry and Howard “Lopp” DeCastro
were four fellow pilots that were the “dread of any commanding officer.” “They were excellent pilots, Keith
said, “hot dogs, carefree attitudes and if you saw Tom Cruise in TOP GUN, you saw Joe Walker, Bob Perry, Stan
McCarthy and Lopp all in one role.”
The WMF (AW) 542 Squadron were pilots of the F4D Skyray that won
several high performance take-offs from the ground to 40,000 ft in seconds. Keith said that nothing compared to today's
standards, “but back then, WOW!”
Keith continued, “It was not a regulation take off, it was not
one that was the norm but, the FEARLESS FOUR.enjoyed the opportunity trying to outdo the other.
“Often to
cheers from the ground crews, one of the four would come screaming down the runway .less than five feet off the ground, at
the end of the runway that old bird would turn on its tail straight up like a rocket taking off. The kicker was which of the
four got the most cheers from us on the ground and we sort of judged them when they landed, they asked who had the best take-off.
‘If you take a look at the F4D Skyray, standing on its tail, reminds you of the Space Shuttle.”
Keith said that Walker liked speed. On more than one occasion, he liked to buzz Newport Beach, CA inverted, just to “check
out the chicks.”
“Speed was a demon also,”Keith said, “Joe ran a little too fast on the
ground as well, too fast and too often. He got his drivers license yanked.He argued that if the Marines allowed him to travel
at 600 mph, what was the deal he could handle a little speed. We enlisted got a giggle having to salute our Joe Walker riding
back and forth to fly his jet on a bike.”
The last time Bill and Kay Wiggins saw Joe Walker was at their
wedding. Bill saw his cousin for the last time just a day before he died. Joe was mowing his mother’s yard. His dad
had died about two years earlier. The Walker’s lived in a house behind were NAPA Auto Parts is located Joe told his
cousin that he was looking forward to enrolling the the University of Tennessee Law School that fall.
The next
day, July 25, 1964, Monterey and Joe’s mother received the sad news. He had been killed. Joe’s plane, an AF-1E
jet fighter failed during take-off and crashed into a house near the end of the runway at Dobbins Air Force Base, in Marietta,
Ga. Two spinster sisters who lived at the house were also killed and a guest badly burned.
At least a couple of
what was left of the “fearless four” attended Joe’s funeral, maybe all. Stan McCarthy and Howard “Lopp”
DeCastro. McCarthy was a dentist in Massachusetts, when he died at age 37. Howard “Lopp” DeCastro is now the Space
Shuttle Program Manager for the United Space Alliance. Bob Perry and his wife named a son after his friend, Joe Walker.
When Walker’s mother died, in September, 1995, while they were clearing out her apartment, they found a box
containing all of Joe’s belongings. They asked if it was okay to throw it away. Bill Wiggins just couldn’t do
it. It’s still protected at Bill and Kay’s house.
Thanks to Bill Wiggins and Jim Keith for all their
information about the fallen hero, 1st Lt. Joseph Martin Walker. We remember and hope you do, too.
Pictured Monterey Police Officer Sandra Cooper, Cumberland County
Deputy Timothy Tudor and Monterey Police Officer John Petitt take Darious Jamall Andrews, 22, Robersonville, NC into custody
at the Monterey Shell after a shooting investigation. Andrews allegedly shot his passenger as they traveled on I-40. Photo:
Dale Welch/Hilltop Express
DRIVER SHOOTS PASSENGER IN FACE;
MOTIVE STILL NOT KNOWN
By Dale Welch
dale@hilltopexpress.net
Law enforcement officers in both Putnam and Cumberland Counties are
still investigating a shooting that happened early last week. Meanwhile, the victim is still in a Chattanooga hospital and
a suspect is in the Putnam County Jail.
Darious Jamall Andrews, 22, Robersonville, NC, is charged with aggravated
assault and Hizzam Faraan Abbas, 50, also of Robersonville, NC is still unable to talk with officers from his hospital bed.
Monterey Police Officers Sandra Cooper and John Pettit were called to the Monterey Shell Station about a man
bleeding from the face. When they arrived, they found two men in front of the car wash at the Shell station.
The
driver, Andrews, told the officers the first of many stories that he and his victim were traveling in the fast lane down I-40
and heard a popping sound from a car in the passenger lane.. When he looked over, Andrews told officers, he noticed that his
friend had been shot. He said he soon saw the “entering Putnam County” sign and stopped at the first exit, the
301 exit, and stopped in at the Shell station.
Officers said that the problem with Andrews’ first story
was that the victim had been shot from the driver’s side of the vehicle, not the passenger’s side. As both Putnam
and Cumberland authorities arrived, during the investigation, they found the alleged weapon, reported to be a .22-caliber
pistol in the trash can in the men’s room at the Shell station.
While paramedics worked with the victim,
Officer Pettit drove the ambulance from the scene to the Monterey High School baseball field to meet the Erlanger air
ambulance.
The investigation continues.
The Monterey Garden Club awarded Janice and Danny Phipps their July
“I Care” Property Award. The Phipps’ received not only a certificate, but a check and the use of the “I
Care” sign to display on their property for the month.
Photo: Dale Welch/
Hilltop Express
VFW to host Monterey Mayoral
Forum on July 12
What do you know about any of the
candidates running for Monterey mayor? After nine years, the longest continuous serving mayor, Ken Wiggins, is not running
again, so, there will be a new one.
Voters will have a unique opportunity on Saturday, July 12 for a strict question
and answer forum from the mayoral candidates. They’ve all been invited.
There is a $5 admission charge
for cake, ice cream and a soft drink. The fundraiser event will be used to go to the VFW Standing Stone Post 6277 “Veterans
and Widows Relief Fund.”
The doors at the VFW Building will open at 5 p.m. for cake and ice cream and to
collect written questions. The mayoral forum will start at 6 p.m. and will last about an hour.
A list of the rules
that the VFW says will be strictly adhered to are:
1. Seating of Candidates and order of opening remarks will be
determined by lot.
2. Each Candidate will have two (2) minutes for opening remarks.
3.
Written questions will be submitted by the audience and relayed through the moderator.
4. Each Candidate will have
the opportunity to answer each question.
5 Each Candidate will have one (1) Minute to answer each question.
6.The order of answering will be on a rotating basis, i.e., answers to the first question will begin with the Candidate
sitting closest to the moderator, answers to the second question will begin with the Candidate sitting second closest to the
moderator, etc. This is to insure that each candidate has the opportunity to answer a question first.
7. The moderator
will group similar questions in order to address the widest concerns of the audience, i.e., if there are more questions submitted
about issue “A” than other issues, the issue “A” question will be asked ahead of other questions.
8. Any question addressed to a particular Candidate will be modified to allow all the Candidates to answer. If it
cannot be modified it will be discarded.
9. The forum will stop after approximately one hour. This should allow
the Candidates to answer nine to eleven questions. However, we may run overtime to insure two complete rounds of questioning
– eight questions – are addressed. Additionally, if at the end of an hour some Candidates have answered a question,
the remaining Candidates will have the opportunity to answer the same question.
Additional Criteria
No personal or political attacks. This forum is to inform the public where the Candidates stand on the issues and how each
Candidate will answer the questions; this forum is NOT to indicate what one candidate thinks about the other nor what the
audience thinks about any candidate. This is a forum, not a debate.
Any questions submitted that seem to be personal
or political attacks will be ignored.
Phrases to avoid would be like or similar to “Unlike my opponent(s)
I ……” . As indicated this forum is to find where the Candidate stands, not what the Candidate thinks
about their opponents.
Violation of this criteria may be pointed out by the moderator. The VFW does not endorse
any candidate.
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