Earl Oren Walters

Military
media-46469.jpeg UPL 46469 1LT Earl Oren Walters
Fighter Pilot
365th FG - 387th FS - 9th AF

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181385924/earl-oren-walters#view-ph…

Object Number - UPL 46469 - 1LT Earl Oren Walters Fighter Pilot 365th FG - 387th FS - 9th AF

Connections

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Units served with

Aircraft

44-32795

  • Aircraft Type: P-47 Thunderbolt
  • Nicknames: Annabelle
  • Unit: 365th Fighter Group 387th Fighter Squadron

Places

Azeville

  • Site type: Airfield
  • Known as: Fontanay-Sur-Mer

Chievres

  • Site type: Airfield
  • Known as: Chièvres Air Base

Events

Event Location Date Description

Born

Wenatchee, Washington 12 May 1924

Other

Aerial Victory

near Hadamar, Germany 21 October 1944 1 - FW 190

Died

Richmond, VA 5 July 2017 Earl Oren Walters, 93, was born in Wenatchee, Washington on May 12, 1924 to Ray Oren Walters and Mabel Somerville Walters. He passed away peacefully on July 5, 2017 at his home, Our Lady of Hope Health Center in Richmond, Virginia. Earl enjoyed fishing, hiking, and other outdoor activities during his youth in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Wenatchee. With his close friend, Dudley Kelly, Earl enjoyed scouting, mountain climbing, and together they climbed Mt. Saint Helens and other peaks in Washington. Dudley was killed in World War II in 1945 in the Philippines, and Earl kept Dudley's photo for the rest of his life. Earl was an active Boy Scout, and he epitomized all 12 of the tenets of the Scout Law. Earl played football and basketball during his High School years In Winthrop Wa. He completed his High School graduation requirements in the fall of 1942 before his class formally graduated and enlisted in the Army on December 15, 1942. Earl entered the Aviation Cadet Program and began the Pre-Flight program. After extensive physical and psychological testing he was assigned to the 312th College Training Detachment (CTD) at Montana State, Bozeman, Montana, where he took courses in mathematics, physics, and other aeronautical-related subjects. He completed this training in June 1943 and was assigned to Blythe Army Air Field in California for Primary Aviation Training, where he learned the basics of piloting an aircraft. Upon graduation he went to Gardner Army Air Field where he trained in formation and instrument flying. After successful completion of this training he was selected for single-engine Advanced Training at Luke Army Air Field in Phoenix, Arizona, where he began to learn the skills of the fighter pilot in the AT-6 Texan and the P-40. Upon graduation he earned his wings and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army on March 12, 1944. He then went to Harding Army Air Field in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for fighter transition training in the P-47 Thunderbolt, which he completed on June 30, 1944. While stationed in Baton Rouge, Earl met and courted his future wife, Anna Belle LaHaye. Earl left for Europe on July 14, 1944. On July 26th Earl was assigned to the 495th Fighter Training Group in England for several weeks, after which he was assigned to the 365th Fighter Group in the European Theater as part of the 9th Air Force. Earl was a member of the 387th Fighter Squadron, which was one of three squadrons in the 365th Fighter Group. He joined the Group in late summer 1944 at field A-12 at Balleroy, France and flew his first combat mission on September 1, 1944. Between September and mid-February 1945, Earl flew 44 combat missions as a member of the 'Hell Hawks'. On October 21, 1944 the 365th Fighter Group destroyed 21 German aircraft with no losses in aerial combat near Koblenz, Germany, for which they later earned a Presidential Unit Citation. Earl achieved his only aerial victory of the war on that day. The vast majority of Earl's missions were providing close-air-support to Allied infantry units, and bombing and strafing a wide variety of ground targets. The 9th Air Force fighter-bombers made the roads impassable for the Germans during the day and were instrumental in the battle of Normandy and the breakout into Germany. These missions conducted at low level and at high speeds were extremely dangerous and were flown against a well-armed and determined enemy. Damage from enemy flak was very common; Earl was close enough to one of his own bomb blasts on one occasion to blow a fist-sized hole in the elevator of his aircraft. The 365th Fighter Group also played a significant role in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium in December 1944, and the group was awarded the Belgium Croix de Guerre for their contribution. As part of that effort Earl participated in a mission with the 387th Fighter Squadron on December 17, 1944 that resulted in the discovery and destruction of a large convoy of Panzer tanks, half-tracks and trucks belonging to Kampfgruppe Peiper of the 1st SS Panzer Division. In February 1944 Earl was detached to the 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion, and acted as a pilot ground controller guiding his fellow pilots to their targets near the front lines. During the course of the war the 365th Fighter Group moved more frequently than any other Allied Fighter Group in Europe to stay close to the action, and they were the first Fighter Group to fly a mission from German soil. Seventy of Earl's pilot comrades were lost to enemy action or accidents during the course of the war, including several during missions in which Earl participated. Earl returned to his Group on his 21st birthday, May 12, 1945, and began preparing to take the fight to Japan. Fortunately that eventuality did not come to pass, and Earl sailed home with his comrades in September 1945 and soon returned to civilian life. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and 8 Air Medals during his service, and he was a proud member of the P-47 Thunderbolt Pilot's Association and the Ninth Air Force Association. During the war, Earl wrote numerous letters to his grandfather, his parents, and his siblings, minimizing the dangers he faced, and assuring them that he was safe and well cared-for and was having a "swell time" helping to bring the war to a conclusion. Immediately upon returning home, Earl bought a car and hit the road for Louisiana. He later described how he picked up returning servicemen who were hitchhiking home, so they could share in the driving and help him to get to Louisiana and his love Anna Belle without stopping. On October 27, 1945 Earl and Anna Belle were married at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Mamou, Louisiana. Anna Belle and Earl said goodbye to her many Cajun friends and family and returned to the Pacific Northwest and began a marriage that lasted over 70 years. Earl attended Oregon State College under the GI Bill, and received a degree in Forest Products in June 1949. While at Oregon State he was elected to the National Forestry Honor Fraternity Xi Sigma Pi. Their extended family and relatives were very important to Earl and Anna Belle, and their own two children were the focus of their life. Nightly family meals around the table were the rule, weekly visits to church, and frequent family time playing games, traveling and site seeing, or camping in the summer were important activities. Earl and his family moved numerous times in the early years as he worked various forestry-related jobs in Oregon, Washington, and California. As life can be, things were difficult at times, but Earl never wavered and positively faced every challenge head-on and undeterred. In the spring of 1965 Earl accepted a job with the Texas Forest Service in Lufkin, Texas, and Anna Belle was able to live again near family and friends in Louisiana. Earl enjoyed the stability of working for the Texas Forest Service as a Wood Technologist for the next 20 years. During his professional career Earl wrote a number of technical articles and was awarded a patent. Earl and Anna Belle built a home in Lufkin of which they were very proud. Earl and Anna Belle were active members of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lufkin. Earl loved music and played the violin in his early years. He would lead the singing at Mass, and later Earl joined the church choir and remained an active member into his 80s. Earl and Belle had a wide circle of friends and were charter members of the Lufkin Polka Dots, which later became the Lufkin Dance Club. They tremendously enjoyed dancing, socializing, and playing cards and dominoes with their many friends. They were members of the Luf-to-go Good Sam's RV Club, of which Earl was elected president on one occasion. They also travelled with their friends in the Lufkin Carriage Club. Earl and Anna Belle enjoyed local travel in Texas in their RV with their friends in the group, but they also traveled extensively on their own to visit distant family and to see as many sites as possible. Over the years they made countless meticulously planned (and recorded) trips and pulled their RV to 48 states and Canada. Earl enjoyed hunting deer and squirrels and he and Anna Belle fished together whenever the fish were biting. Earl and Anna Belle loved their home and took pride in maintaining their yard and flowers. Earl enjoyed yard work and planted a vegetable garden each year and continued to do so each week until 2014 when they finally left their home of nearly 50 years and moved to assisted living at Pinecrest in Lufkin. Earl was a resilient, 'do-it-yourself' kind of man, completing numerous woodworking and home improvement projects over the years and maintaining as much as he could by himself, never paying anyone to do something he could do for himself. Earl enjoyed reading and working crossword, Jumble and Sudoku puzzles, and could spend many hours engrossed in them. In February 2015, Earl and Anna Belle made their final move to Our Lady of Hope Health Center in Richmond, Virginia, where they enjoyed activities with new friends as much as possible.

Buried

Glen Allen, VA 9 July 2017 Saint Michaels Church Columbarium Glen Allen, Henrico County, Virginia, USA

Other

Assigned to the 365th FG

Balleroy (A-12), France

Revisions

Date
Contributor466thHistorian
Changes
Sources

"Thunderbolts of The Hell Hawks" - Barnes, Crump and Sutherland, page 81

Date
Contributor466thHistorian
Changes
Sources

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181385924/earl-oren-walters
http://hellhawks.org/387_roster.html

Earl Oren Walters: Gallery (2 items)

Object number: UPL 46469 - 1LT Earl Oren Walters Fighter Pilot 365th FG -...

Object number: UPL 46470 - 1LT Earl Oren Walters Fighter Pilot 365th FG -...