[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO KENNETH WALTER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LATHAM

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 16, 2010

  Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize Kenneth Walter, a 
World War II Navy veteran from Boone County, Iowa, and to express my 
appreciation for his dedication and commitment to his country.
  The Boone News Republican is currently running a series of articles 
that honors one Boone County veteran every Tuesday from Memorial Day to 
Veterans Day. Kenneth Walter was recognized on Tuesday, September 7. 
Below is the article in its entirety:

                 Boone County Veterans: Kenneth Walter

                           (By Greg Eckstrom)

       History is best learned from experience.
       Living through it, feeling it and seeing it from your own 
     eyes.
       As a former American history teacher, Kenneth Walter, who 
     has lived in Boone for 50 years now and is a retired United 
     administrator, would likely be the best teacher you can find 
     for World War II history from the Pacific.
       Learning about Kamikaze pilots? Walter's boat was hit by 
     one. The flag raising on Mount Suribachi during the battle of 
     Iwo Jima? They came to Walter's boat first looking for a 
     spare flag, and ended up getting the one from the boat next 
     to him.
       Walter's experiences brought him through some historic 
     moments in World War II, but as far as sharing this in his 
     classrooms after returning to the United States, he stuck to 
     teaching rather than sharing stories.
       ``In my years of teaching I don't ever recall an instance 
     of recounting the fact that I was in the service,'' he said. 
     ``Everybody had been in the service. You did it and never 
     gave it too much thought.''
       Born in Keokuk, Walter graduated high school in Cincinnati, 
     Ohio, before enlisting into the service.
       ``What choice was there for a young man, 16 or 17?'' he 
     recalled of signing up for the Navy. ``You got in just as 
     quick as you could . . . at least I did.''
       And once he was in, Walter took pleasure in the little 
     things . . . the basic things.
       ``On most every occasion I had a bed. On most every 
     occasion, somebody else prepared my meal,'' he said with a 
     laugh. ``And beyond that, I had a great job in the Navy. I 
     was a quartermaster, which is not a quartermaster in the 
     Army. A quartermaster in the Navy is the master of the 
     quarter deck, which is the bridge. Quartermasters were in 
     charge of navigation. As a quartermaster, you had to be able 
     to do the same things a radio man did, the same things a 
     signal man did. I also got qualified as a radar man. We had 
     to do all sorts of things. We supervised the other enlisted 
     staff on the bridge. But of course, we were always managed by 
     officers. Navigation and communication were primary 
     responsibilities.''
       Walter found himself aboard a Tank Landing Ship, the LST-
     477, a long ship--about 325 feet--used to carry massive 
     amounts of cargo.
       ``We went to Guam and did landings there, landings at 
     Gilbert Islands. Our major action was in Iwo [Jima] when we 
     got into the action big time,'' he said. ``We had a kamikaze 
     hit us. That's when I lost my place to sleep.''
       At the time, Walter's ship was carrying 25 tanks that were 
     to be discharged on the first day of the Battle of Iwo Jima--
     a very heavy load.
       ``We were struck maybe 75 feet back from the bow,'' he 
     said. ``It was carrying a bomb in addition to itself as a 
     missile, and it penetrated the side and we went down on our 
     nose. We couldn't get in because of our bow being low. So we 
     had to wait two days. Finally, on the fourth day, we made it 
     in.''
       Another vivid memory for Walter was the flag raising at 
     Mount Suribachi.
       ``We were one of the ships they came to looking for a flag 
     to put up on Mount Sirabachi on Iwo, and the ship next to us 
     had a flag extra, and we didn't happen to,'' he said. ``But 
     we did get to see the event from our ship. We blew our horns 
     and everything like that. The Marines let us know what they'd 
     done, because we had Marines who were unloading tanks at that 
     particular time.''
       Walter also recalled the final day of World War II. His 
     ship had been remodeled to be a hospital ship for the 
     invasion of Japan.
       ``We had doctors and nurses aboard,'' he said. ``They put a 
     couple operating rooms down where we usually carry tanks. So 
     we were not unhappy to see the war be over. We were amongst 
     those that were pleased that the atom bombs stopped the war. 
     We knew what was going to happen to us.''
       After the war ended, Walter traveled to Korea with a 
     construction battalion, and then back to Japan. His boat had 
     been decommissioned, and he found himself as part of the 
     group giving his boat to those they had previously been 
     fighting.
       ``It was an odd feeling,'' he said. ``There's nothing in 
     any history book about the United States helping the Japanese 
     in that kind of way. I think it's one of those typical things 
     Americans do . . . give the beaten people a better chance to 
     get by. And what happened to our ship, it was turned over to 
     some Japanese fishermen. We gave them about two days worth of 
     training on how to run the ship and gave it to them. On March 
     13, 1946, we did that. That's when I started my long trek 
     home. I got out in July of 1946. I took a ship, another ship, 
     back home.''
       After his service, Walter moved to Illinois, then Boone, 
     where he has lived for the past 50 years. He most recently 
     went on the Honor Flight to Washington, DC. Although he had 
     been there several times in the past, it was the first time 
     he had seen the World War II Memorial.
       ``That's spectacular,'' he said. ``It really is.''
       When recalling the history he's lived through, Walter 
     doesn't give the highlights typically heard of service men 
     and women of their travels.
       ``Yeah, I went to Japan and Korea and Australia and so 
     on,'' he said. ``But it's not like being a tourist. You're 
     not a tourist. There are a lot of places I was where I never 
     stepped foot on the ground. You were just . . . it's like 
     flying over Iowa.''
       For Walter, he recalls the friendships that were formed 
     with those aboard his ship. Since World War II, they have 
     held reunions, and he has had friends from the service visit 
     him in Boone.
       ``Lasting friendship,'' he said. ``Not deep friendship, 
     just lasting. The service experience is something altogether 
     different. There isn't anything to explain it.''

  I commend Kenneth Walter for his many years of loyalty and service to 
our great nation. It is an immense honor to represent him in the United 
States Congress, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

                          ____________________