 |
| Photo provided to me by Walker's first cousin, Selvin Butts |
Submitted by Paul Sniegon
Howard Madison Walker was born March 6, 1925 and was a native of Bowling Green, KY. He spent much of his childhood with his grandmother, America Hardin. Also living with his grandmother, were three cousins, Selvin Butts, Mary Butts and Dorothy Butts. Walker joined the submarine service because it paid more than other jobs in the Navy, because of hazardous pay. During his time in the Navy, he funneled money back to help pay for Dorothy Butts to attend college at Tennessee State University and to help pay for his mothers house.
He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a steward aboard one of the most famous submarines of World War II, the USS Tang (SS-306). During his time on the Tang, he was extremely loyal to the Tang’s Captain, Richard O’Kane. If O’Kane said that he wanted to be up at dawn, Walker would get up 15 minutes earlier to have his coffee ready. In his book, Clear The Bridge, Dick O’Kane talked very fondly of Walker and he is mentioned throughout the book. Walker had some very colorful episodes that were also explained in the book. He was a gambler, and from the accounts that I have read, he was very good and made quite a bit of money. On one account, William Liebold, the Tang’s chief petty officer, said that when they were at Midway for a refueling stop, Walker was involved in a craps game and if it hadn’t been for some shipmates going up and dragging him back, he would have been court martialed.
On October 25, 1944 while on their 5th war patrol in the Formosa Strait near Turnabout Island, their final torpedo (24) was fired and then circled back towards the Tang. O’Kane gave orders to try and avoid the impact, but it was too late. The torpedo struck the Tang and during the explosion, a door blew open, smashing Walker full in the face, splitting his lips and breaking his nose, and flattening it to one side. While on the bottom in about 180 feet of water, some of the men decided to try to escape to the surface, using a Momsen lung. Walker was one of those men, and unfortunately because of his damaged nose, the Momsen lung did not fit properly, and as he came up to the surface, had had lost his grip on the line and was not wearing a lung. One of the survivors on the surface, DaSilva started to swim towards Walker and saw him flailing his arms and he was in agony. A few moments later, his head sank in the water and he drifted away. Most likely, he was the victim of an air embolism. In DeRose’s book Unrestricted Warfare, he gives one of the few detailed accounts of Walker’s struggle after his escape from the Tang.
The survivors who successfully escaped from the submarine to the surface, and the ones that were on the bridge when the explosion occurred who were thrown into the water, were later picked up by a Japanese patrol boat and sent to a POW camp where they endured horrific torture and inhumane treatment. At the war’s end, every single officer, living or dead, was decorated with the Silver Star, Navy Cross, or in O’Kane’s case, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Every enlisted man known to have reached the surface after the sinking also was awarded the Silver Star, everyone except Howard Walker, who was referred to as the “negro steward” in the ComSubPac report. He was also referred to as “a negro mess cook” or “the negro “ and “negro cook or mess attendant or cook.” He wasn’t listed by his name. Most recently, the Senate of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky introduced a resolution, SR 108, to honor Howard Walker for his bravery.
