Patton's Bulldog: The Life and Service of General Walton H. Walker [Hardcover]

Wilson Allen Heefner (Author), Martin Blumenson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2002

General Walton H. Walker died in December 1950 while commanding the Eighth Army in Korea. A combat veteran of three wars, Walker, like his role model, General George S. Patton, Jr., died not from an enemy bullet, but as the result of a vehicular accident.

From his earliest years growing up in the rolling hills of central Texas, Walton Walker had set his sights on an army career. Graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1912, Walker served in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914; commanded a machine gun battalion in France in 1918; led XX Corps in the vanguard of Patton’s Third Army through France, Germany, and Austria in World War II; and commanded the understrength, ill-equipped, and outmanned Eighth Army during the darkest days of the Korean War.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Biography of a remarkable soldier. Walker led XX Corps in the vanguard of Patton’s Third Army through France, Germany, and Austria in World War II.

About the Author

Wilson A. Heefner is a retired physician who has begun a second career as military historian. A native of Pennsylvania, Heefner holds degrees from Gettysburg College, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the University of Hawaii. He retired from the U.S. Army in the grade of colonel after 41 years of service as an enlisted man, infantry officer, and medical officer, and served as a private first class in Walker’s Eighth Army in 1950. Heefner is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. His broad civilian and military education and experience provide him with unique qualifications to write this first critical biography of General Walton H. Walker. He is also the author of 20th Century Warrior.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: White Mane Pub (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157249283X
• ISBN-13: 978-1572492837
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,824,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wilson A. Heefner, M.D., was born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, in 1931, and graduated from Waynesboro Senior High School in 1949. Immediately following graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Army, beginning a forty-one-year military career as an enlisted man, infantry officer, and medical officer in the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Reserve, and retired in the grade of colonel. He holds degrees from Gettysburg College (B.A.), the University of Maryland School of Medicine (M.D.), and the University of Hawaii (M.A., U.S. History), and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. He was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the Korean Service Medal. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society. Doctor Heefner is married to Patrica, and has two children and four grandchildren. He currently resides in Stockton, California.

After retiring from a twenty-eight-year career as a pathologist and nuclear physician he began a second career as a military historian and author. He has authored three published biographies, "Twentieth Century Warrior: The Life and Service of Major General Edwin D. Patrick"(1995), "Patton's Bulldog: The Life and Service of General Walton H. Walker" (2001), and "Dogface Soldier: The Life of General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr." (2010).

In September 2011 he will lead a tour of the Rhone valley in southern France, which General Truscott's VI Corps liberated after its successful landing along the French Riviera on August 15, 1944, "The Forgotten D-Day." The tour has been organized by MilSpec Tours, which has a long history of conducting tours for military veterans in Europe and Asia. Those desiring more information about the tour should contact Doctor Heefner at [phone] or [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 'Worth Reading' but the definitive bio remains to be written, December 26, 2003

By 

Darrell J. Hartwick "Know the Truth" (Newton, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Patton's Bulldog: The Life and Service of General Walton H. Walker (Hardcover)

I am glad I read this book, and I recommend it to those who want to know more about George Patton's subordinates. It contains some interesting details, including many concerned with Walker's service in a World War I machine gun company. Unfortunately, it also has major deficiencies. The style is very ordinary, and dry at times. More importantly, the author fails to put Walker's accomplishments into any kind of broader historical perspective. (As a very minor historian, perhaps it was modesty on Heefner's part that led him to refrain, wisely, from even attempting this.) The quote by Alexander Haig on the dust jacket is particularly unhelpful and misleading, since Haig's partisan jab about preparedness doesn't belong on a book that makes no attempt to examine whether the funds available to Harry Truman in 1950 were really misallocated. Was money spent in Europe that should've been spent training Walker's unit in Japan, in anticipation of the North Korean attack? This book is about a brave and dedicated individual, not such broad questions of policy.
There are also some unanswered questions that are more relevant to General Walker, the soldier: Was he used as a scapegoat for American difficulties in Korea? How did the timing of his death affect how he was judged by his contemporaries? Wilson Allen Heefner has provided some raw material that will help to answer such questions, but he has also convinced me that General Walker deserves a better biography.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Patton's favorite corps caommander, March 30, 2008

By 

Michael Surace "ETO amateur historian" (Binghamton, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Patton's Bulldog: The Life and Service of General Walton H. Walker (Hardcover)

Walton Walker was Patton's favorite corps commander. Patton considered Walker the easiest of his corps commanders to command and also the most aggressive. Even though in private he communicated with Eisenhower that General Mddleton(VIII Corps CG) should assume command of the 3rd Army if anything should happen to Patton.

Walker idolized Patton and would do anything to please Patton, whom he considered a great general. On the other hand during the Korean War MacArthur and Walker did not have a good relationship. Their fractured trust in each other's abilities played a large part in the diaster above the 38th parallel. It didn't help matters that while Patton was a front line general , MacArthur was a command post general.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Read, June 9, 2005

By 

Paul W. Posey "n4bpp" (Grovetown, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Patton's Bulldog: The Life and Service of General Walton H. Walker (Hardcover)

I did not know very much about General Walker although I should having read about ever Patton book there is. This book gives a fine detail of this wonderful soldier and does a good job of introducing the reader to who General Walker is. The writing style is easy to follow and will make it intersting to readers new to General Walker. I found the book good enough that I rad it through in one day. I learned a lot about this great man and you will enjoy reading about him to. It's sad hos simular his nd Patton's deaths were.

Paul Posey