America's most ambitious "nation-building" effort
since Germany and Japan will soon be joined by West
Tennessee national guardsmen, including many from
McKenzie's Company A of the 230th Engineer Battalion.
The McKenzie unit was organized on January 21, 1947,
staffed by World War II soldiers returning from Europe
and the Pacific Theatre while the countries they had
defeated were being rebuilt.
Originally an infantry outfit, the unit has worked
through two reorganizations, first to armor and then
engineering. In fact, the unit is still evolving,
having recently begun conversion from combat engineers
to heavy construction engineers.
Through most of the unit's nearly 58 years of history,
three generations of patriots: Ralph, Johnny and Todd
Walker - father, son and grandson - have contributed a
total of 91 years of service. Ralph retired with over
42 years of military service; First Sergeant Johnny
Walker has 38 years invested, and Todd has 11 years.
The legend is further enhanced by Johnny's wife,
Stephanie, the unit's first female member, and her
son, Andrew Arnold, Jr., a member of Company A now in
basic training at Fort Knox.
When Ralph enlisted in the Navy in March, 1945, at the
age of 17, little did he know he was beginning a trend
for Walker men to assert their maturity a year earlier
than law demands.
In his hometown of Huntingdon, Ralph spent weeks
begging his parents to sign for him to enlist. It was
during World War II and both of his brothers, Dennis,
Jr. and Jack, were already serving overseas, one in
the Navy and the other in the Army.
"Me and all my friends wanted in before the war was
over," Ralph says. He got his wish, and spent his 18th
birthday in the mid-Pacific on the way to the
Philippine Islands aboard USS Bladen (APA 63), and
spent the next year in the northern Pacific and Japan.
When the war was over, he remained in the reserves and
transferred to the McKenzie unit on Dec 5, 1950, as a
fulltime employee. He moved his family - wife, Mary,
and son, Johnny - to McKenzie the next month where he
enrolled part time at Bethel College, graduating in
1953.
"I've always enjoyed my military service," says Ralph,
"Every assignment seemed a challenge and I like
challenges."
He was an administrative assistant (AST) during his
first 20 years of active guard duty and spent the next
ten as a support supply technician, then ten more as
facility manager of the Milan Army Ammunition Plant.
His favorite challenge came with participation in the
military marksmanship program. Ralph competed in
state, regional and national high-powered rifle
matches from 1950 through 1970 and was subsequently
involved in range operations until his retirement.
"I never won a national title, but I held my own," he
reports.
Johnny, following in his father's footsteps, worked as
a range officer in the international phase of the
Wilson matches at Camp Robinson, Arkansas for 20
years.
Ralph retired on July 23, 1987. A few months ago,
Johnny, too, became eligible to retire, however, Ralph
says, when he and Mary spoke with him about it, Johnny
said he couldn't abandon his fellow soldiers at a time
when the unit could be mobilized, a prediction that
has now come to pass.
Johnny joined Company A on May 14, 1966, attending his
first drill the day after graduation from McKenzie
High School.
"I grew up in the armory; I spent a lot of time there
so I figured I might as well get paid for it," he
jokes. Today, he's the longest serving member still in
the unit, with Charles Felts about a year behind.
Johnny began his career as a supply specialist during
which time he was a student at the University of
Tennessee at Martin, completing his degree at Bethel
in 1971. He also attended funeral director's school
and worked in that profession for several years
before, 30 years ago, beginning full time employment
at the McKenzie National Guard unit in a civilian
capacity as an administrative assistant while
continuing his part-time guard duties; attending
drills, summer camps and other training opportunities.
Johnny became first sergeant on June 13, 1989. He had
spent 27 years in the armor unit before its rollover
to engineers six year later.
"Then business picked up," he says.
Up until that time a unit unto itself, the new mission
was split between the McKenzie component and its
detachment in Milan. The change in mission also meant
the unit could accept female soldiers. Stephanie
Arnold was the first to join Company A. Originally
from Texas, she was a member of the regular Army from
February 1977 through June '85, and joined the Guard
in 1987.
Johnny and Stephanie met through their joint service
and were married on April 19, 2002, by which time Todd
was also a member of the unit.
His enlistment began on December 31, 1991, midway
through his senior year at MHS.
"It's a family tradition," his father says, "all three
of us enlisted in the military when we were 17 years
old with our parents' consent."
Still just 17 when he completed basic training, Todd
was initially a tank mechanic in the then-armor unit.
His sentiments regarding basic training are the same
as most members of the military: "It's something
that's a difficult challenge; something you wouldn't
take anything for but wouldn't want to do again."
Todd was Battalion Soldier of the Year in 1995, chosen
from over 400 members of the five-unit battalion.
Originally a temporary employee at BellSouth, he had
considered entering the regular Army before being
offered a full-time job in Ripley. After eight years
in the National Guard, coupled with weekend work as a
BellSouth outside plant technician (basically a
lineman, he says) Todd was unable to comfortably meet
his guard obligation. He left the guard and was out
about a year and a half before rejoining on September
7, 2001 - four days before the terrorist attacks on
New York and Washington, D.C.
"It was astounding," he says. "I didn't know what was
going to happen, but I knew everything was going to
change."
The 30-year-old citizen-soldier will complete ten
years with the phone company on December 27 and, in
the National Guard, was recently promoted to Sergeant,
E-5.
Says Todd's wife, Lauren, "I'm proud of him. It won't
be easy with him being gone and I'll miss him, but I'm
proud of him. I think it's an amazing thing for him to
be going to support his country."
This is not the first time the unit has undertaken
humanitarian missions to help build other countries.
Johnny has been to Honduras twice and Todd once.
During the second trip in '98, the unit worked to
bring fresh water from a spring two miles high in the
mountains. Previously, Todd shares, the people of the
poverty stricken nation got up in the morning, ran the
chickens and hogs out of their homes, and sent
children as young as five, six and seven years old up
the mountain after water.
In '96, Todd traveled to the Commonwealth of Dominica
in the Caribbean where members of the McKenzie unit,
along with Paris' 890th Engineers, rebuilt two schools
and built a second floor onto the Coast Guard
building.
The unit has twice traveled to California to help
construct border roads and fences and in Kentucky
capped a landfill located at an old strip-mining
field.
The troops anticipate their mission in Iraq will be
"basically nation-building; going over there fixing
the roads and things like we've done in some of these
other countries," says Johnny.
But the men know that in many ways their new mission
will be unlike any other they have undertaken. Orders
call for up to 18 months of active duty in the country
beset by terrorism from opportunistic jihadis as well
as rebellion from factions within its own borders.
Still, many circumstances work in their favor; they
hail from caring communities determined to support
them and their families during their absence and the
units from which they are assembled are already "like
a big family," according to Stephanie.
"It's a wonderful unit, very close-knit," she says of
the McKenzie/Milan company. "I've never seen a unit as
close as this one."
Because only troops schooled as combat engineers -
capable of using heavy equipment and explosives to
clear roadways, and maintenance personnel - will be
deployed in the mission, many members will be left
behind to continue normal drills and man the armory.
Along with soldiers operating in construction
specialties not currently being mobilized,
administrative personnel will also remain at home.
Among these are seven women in the McKenzie unit and
three in Milan.
"There will be a lot less people but the people that
stay will still be drilling and the armory will be
kept open as far as I know," says First Sergeant
Walker, who expects those members will be able to help
facilitate communication between the troops in Iraq
and their families.
Of 130 personnel being mobilized under the existing
orders, some 65 volunteers from National Guard units
in Trenton, Martin, Camden, Huntingdon, Union City,
and Lobelville will join Company A soldiers from
McKenzie and Milan.
"All of them were volunteers," Johnny says proudly.
"That says a lot about the people from around here who
volunteered when they really don't have to and people
calling from Paris and other units calling to get
their names on the list.
"We've even had a few old retirees say to put their
name in the hat and they'd try to help, too," he
continues, mentioning McKenzie Police Chief Harry
Cooper among them.
"I've left the recruiter three or four messages and he
won't call me," says Ralph wryly, still full of the
national pride that whetted his desire to join the
military in 1945.
Now among his fellow veterans and civilians whose
efforts are geared toward supporting the men who will
likely be leaving McKenzie the week before
Thanksgiving, Ralph is also among a contingency
planning to attempt contact with as many as possible
of some 300 men who have been members of Company A in
years past, in hopes the group can gather for the
troops' send off.
"We are extremely proud of our son and grandson in
that they have displayed a degree of patriotism that
will assure Americans our continued freedom," says
Ralph. "I believe that all our young men and women who
serve in any branch of our armed forces either active
or reserve are all patriots as sure as the militia who
stood with General Washington during our American
Revolution. A good strong active force, Guard and
Reserve, is like the lock on your door, it serves to
keep the bad guys out. Like a good fire department, we
don't need them until we have a fire."
