From a young age, he desired to go to United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, and he hoped to be a general one day.

He was a member of the 1914 Veracruz expedition under Brigadier General Frederick Funston; patrolling on the U.S.-Mexican border in 1916, he developed a close friendship with Dwight D.

[4] After the war, Walker rotated through a variety of assignments at Camp Benning, Georgia, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and served as a company commander and instructor at West Point from August 1923 to June 1925.

The citation for the medal read: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, 9 July 1918, takes pleasure in presenting a Second Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Third Award of the Silver Star Medal to Major General Walton Harris Walker (ASN: 0-3405), United States Army, for gallantry in action against the enemy.

When Infantry troops of the XX Corps launched an attack across the Vire River in the vicinity of Airel, 7 July 1944, and came under intensive enemy fire, General Walker made repeated visits to the disputed sector and exposed himself to mortar and artillery concentrations at the front in order to encourage the officers and men making the crossing.

By his intrepid direction, heroic leadership and superior tactical knowledge and ability, General Walker set an inspiring example for his command, reflecting the highest traditions of the armed forces.

In the spring of 1945, XX Corps liberated Buchenwald concentration camp, then pushed south and east, eventually reaching Linz, Austria by May.

Walker was ordered by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander in Japan, to restore the peacetime Eighth Army to combat-ready condition.

With only four lightly equipped and poorly trained divisions, Walker began landing troops on the southeast side of the Korean peninsula in July.

After his lead units, elements of the 24th Infantry Division (including the ill-fated Task Force Smith), were virtually destroyed in a few days of furious fighting between Osan and Taejon, Walker realized his assigned mission was impossible and went on the defensive.

Attempting to obey, Walker gave a bombastic "not a step back" speech to his staff and subordinate commanders which did not go over well[citation needed].

[13] Walker kept his main units deployed on the front lines, while retaining other U.S. Army and Marine Corps forces as a mobile reserve.

American military forces gradually solidified this defensive position on the southeast side of the Korean peninsula, dubbed the "Pusan Perimeter".

Although thousands of prisoners were taken, many North Korean units successfully disengaged from the fighting, melting away into the interior of South Korea, where they would conduct a guerrilla war for two years.

Lieutenant General Walker distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces in the Republic of Korea from 14 July to 28 September 1950.

The knowledge gained by General Walker from these flights was of inestimable value to him in making tactical decisions, and contributed greatly to the accomplishment of his mission in spite of the preponderance of force possessed by the enemy.

Contrary to MacArthur's expectations, the Chinese intervened in force on November 25, first in a series of ambushes, then in sporadic night attacks, and finally in an all-out offensive in which three Chinese armies infiltrated the lines,[14] taking advantage of the American failure to take basic security measures, and the large gaps between American and South Korean units and between the Eighth Army and the X Corps.

From late October until the beginning of December in 1950, the Chinese killed or captured thousands of American and ROK soldiers, decimating the 2nd Infantry Division and forcing Walker into a desperate retreat.

By early December, using his superior mobility, Walker successfully broke contact with the Chinese, withdrawing south to a position around Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

[16] His body was escorted back to the United States by his son Sam Sims Walker, then a Company commander with the 19th Infantry Regiment, who was also serving in Korea.

In 1963, South Korea President Park Chung Hee honored Walker by naming a hill in the southern part of Seoul after him.

In December 2009, the mayor of Dobong-gu district, Choi Sun-Kil, unveiled the Walton Harris Walker monument to mark the site of his death.

The memorial, which is near Dobong subway Station, pays tribute to Walker and to all those who defended South Korea in the Korean War.