PINE BLUFF -- Seventy-four years after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, Pine Bluff resident Fulton Walker received the medals he earned during his service.
Walker -- a truck driver attached to the famed Red Ball Express, the trucking operation that supplied Allied forces on the final push to defeat Nazi Germany -- served during some of the most furious fighting of the European campaign.
Drafted at 19, Walker initially reported to Fort Knox for training in a tank battalion, but the Army later transferred him to Fort Campbell to learn how to drive a truck.
"When they shipped us off from Fort Knox to Camp Campbell," said Walker, now 96, "we had no idea where we were going. When we got to Campbell, they assigned us trucks. They put us in the trucks and those of us that didn't know how, we got a few directions from the people in charge and -- other than that -- we learned on our own. Evidently, they were really in need of trucks."
According to the National World War II Museum, the Red Ball Express, using trucks marked with a distinctive red ball, was deployed in August 1944 to supply the Allied forces after they broke out of the Normandy beaches. The trucks operated in a convoy, moving supplies around the clock. At the height of the Red Ball Express mission, over 6,000 vehicles carried about 12,000 tons of supplies a day. The majority of the drivers were black soldiers.
For years after the war, Walker hardly thought about the medals he had earned. But in conversations with his financial adviser, Gary Robertson of Maumelle, some of Walker's exploits during the war came out, and Robertson decided to do some investigating.
"About two years ago, I took him out to lunch and we got to talking about World War II," Robertson said. "I asked him if he'd ever received his medals and he said no, he had not."
Robertson said it took three attempts, but Walker finally got a letter telling him that he was going to receive his medals.
"However, he never did," he said. "So I took the letter to Sen. [John] Boozman's office and said this has got to stop. He should have his medals. And they swung into action and here we are."
Then, what was planned to be a small ceremony to give Walker his medals, began to grow into a big event, with flag presentations, a letter from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and a proclamation by Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington naming Friday, February 28, as Fulton Walker Day in Pine Bluff -- all of it kept secret from Walker.
Additionally, Boozman presented Walker with the medals he had earned during his World War II service: the Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Honorable Service Lapel Button WWII, Marksmanship Badge with Rifle Bar, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Three Bronze Stars.
Wanda Truesdale, Walker's daughter, who traveled with her husband and family from her home in Atlanta to attend the ceremony at the Pine Bluff Assembly Life Center, said that Walker had no idea what was in store for him that day.
"He called me at home yesterday morning and said 'there's an article in the paper that they're going to be honoring me,'" Truesdale said. "I said, 'Dad, that is so nice. Be sure and send me a program.' So Dad had no idea that our family would be here but we couldn't miss it."
Boozman said it was not uncommon for soldiers leaving Europe after the war to not receive the medals they had earned in the chaos that ensued as millions of troops headed for home.
Further complicating things, he said, was a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, that destroyed approximately 16 million to 18 million Official Military Personnel Files documenting the service history of former military personnel discharged from 1912 to 1964.
"His financial adviser knew that he'd served and was part of this Red Ball Express and he'd just mentioned to him that he hadn't gotten his medals," Boozman said. "He called the office and what we did was go back and look up the service record that was available and started reconstructing it, so that's how it really came about."
Walker said he was happy to finally receive his medals, but more for his family than for himself.
"Leave history for family," he said. "I have a great-grandchild who just turned 19. That's the age I was when I was drafted. This will be good for him. I just wanted him to understand and to see what I had done."
State Desk on 02/29/2020