THEODORE T. WALKER, LT, USN
Theodore Walker '41
Lucky Bag
From the 1941 Lucky Bag:
THEODORE TAYLOR WALKER
Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky
"High School Harry" we called him that unforgettable summer when we were insignificant. Little did we realize what lay behind that innocent expression and that slight build of the youngest man in '41. But when academics came we started to struggle while old Teddy just coasted along. When the end of that long lonely year came we all found ourselves "junior" to our "High School Harry." Of course the name was soon dropped! So he went as the years passed by, and although three or four years younger than most of us, he distinguished himself not only in studies but in that ancient sport of running. Yes, that slight build carries him over five miles or so in an astoundingly short time, a mere matter of twenty-five minutes!
Besides being the captain of Navy's 1940 Cross Country Squad, Ted also held up the glory of the Naval Academy milers on the track team. Yep, equally as fast on the track as he is on the slip stick—a true mark of an athlete and a scholar.
Cross Country 4, 3, 2, Captain 1 N; Track 4, 3, 2, 1 N*; Star 4, 3, 2.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
THEODORE TAYLOR WALKER
Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky
"High School Harry" we called him that unforgettable summer when we were insignificant. Little did we realize what lay behind that innocent expression and that slight build of the youngest man in '41. But when academics came we started to struggle while old Teddy just coasted along. When the end of that long lonely year came we all found ourselves "junior" to our "High School Harry." Of course the name was soon dropped! So he went as the years passed by, and although three or four years younger than most of us, he distinguished himself not only in studies but in that ancient sport of running. Yes, that slight build carries him over five miles or so in an astoundingly short time, a mere matter of twenty-five minutes!
Besides being the captain of Navy's 1940 Cross Country Squad, Ted also held up the glory of the Naval Academy milers on the track team. Yep, equally as fast on the track as he is on the slip stick—a true mark of an athlete and a scholar.
Cross Country 4, 3, 2, Captain 1 N; Track 4, 3, 2, 1 N*; Star 4, 3, 2.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
Loss
Ted was lost when USS Albacore (SS 218) was sunk by a mine on November 7, 1944 while on patrol north of Hokkaido.
He was the boat's Executive Officer, and was awarded a Silver Star and Bronze Star (unable to find citations).
Other Information
Ted has a memory marker in Kentucky.
No next of kin was listed, though from researcher Kathy Franz:
Father was Theodore, manager in tobacco factory; mother Verna; brother William. Engaged to Betty Hammink in April 1944, but no date set until he returned from duty. Uncle William Walker headed the tobacco factory. Interestingly, a wooden box 7x7x3 inches with the factory stamp was sold in 2018 for $20.
The wreckage site of Albacore was confirmed in February, 2023.
Photographs
"Navy's Captain, Ted Walker, first place winner over Army." From the Lucky Bag's Cross Country page.
courtesy of Sean O'Brien, son of Ted's Albacore shipmate, CDR Clement E. O'Brien.
Other
From Amazon’s entry for ‘’Across the Blue Pacific‘’:
When the United States enters World War II, Molly is attending Beechwood Elementary. But her thoughts are with Ted Walker, her neighbor, who is serving aboard a cruiser in the South Atlantic.
Three years later, the war is still going on and Molly is in the fourth grade. Ted is still at sea, as a naval officer of the USS Albacore, a submarine in the Pacific Ocean. Orchard Road feels like the safest place on earth, but somewhere on the other side of the world, Ted and his crew are carrying out dangerous missions. No one knows when they will come home, and young Molly must find a way to live with fear during wartime.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
April 1941
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