In Memory
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Tim Leroy Walters
Feb. 24, 1943 - Mar. 9, 1969
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army
Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
Entered the Service From: South Bend, Indiana
Date of Birth: February 24, 1943
Date of Death: March 09, 1969
Wars or Conflicts: Vietnam War
Memorialized: Courts of the Missing: Court B
Honolulu Memorial
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Staff Sergeant Walters was a member of Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. On March 9, 1969, he was the observer in a Cessna Skymaster Observation Aircraft (O-2A) on a combat support mission about 5 miles into Laos west of the Demilitarized Zone, when it was shot down. His remains were recovered on February 16, 1999 and identified on November 30, 1999. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial
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After Rex and Walters' aircraft crashed, another aircraft (call sign Knife 55), reported that the aircraft crashed at about 1150 hours. A ground team inspected the wreckage and reported that both the occupants were dead.
However, hostile ground fire prevented them from recovering the remains. Two members of the ground team didn't personally know SSgt. Walters, but stated that both were positively dead. An aircraft engine was on top of the NCO (Walters). The ground team recovered the weapons, map case and camera from the aircraft, but because of hostile ground fire, left the remains behind.
The U.S. Department of Defense categorized Bob Rex and Tim Walters "Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered", the U.S. State Department, using Defense records, coded the demise of Walters as "died while missing" and Rex as "hostile - killed", indicating that there was a probability that the aircraft was shot down, rather than downed through some malfunction or pilot error.
Staff Sergeant Walters was an observer aboard an O2A airacraft on a combat support mission. It crashed in Laos. Missing in action until 1999, when his returns were returned to the United States. He had served in Vietnam for almost four years and was with the Studies and Observation Group (SOG), Military Assistance Command-Vietnam (MACV, as a senior postal clerk when he died. He was actually an Operation's Assistant for the "Airborne Studies Group. Recipient of the Combat Infantryman's Badge, Parachute Wings, Laotian Parachute Badge, Vietnam Parachute Badge, Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Medal, Joint Services Commendation's Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Congressional POW/MIA Commemorative Medal. His name is located on Panel 30W, Line 97 of the Vietnam Memorial
He was buried in 1999 next to a memorial to his uncle, Captain Harry Leroy Walters, SSG, who was missing in action near Choiseul in the Solomon Islands, South Pacific, during World War II. (Information extracted from the Permian Basin Heroes Web Site, Virtual Wall and the Tim L Walters Memorial Web Site)
10/19/2022 DEC
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