General Walton H. Walker

<p>A study of General Walton H. Walker's career offers a lens through which to view the evolution of Army training doctrine revealing its strengths and weaknesses over a period of nearly four decades. However an understanding of the skills necessary to train units for combat cannot consist solely of a review of training doctrine. General Walker's career provides valuable insights into the real-world challenges a leader experienced training an Army unit both in war and in peacetime. The resource constraints political realities and physical hardships that make Army training so difficult to accomplish with skill and foresight cannot be gleaned from classroom lectures or the pages of a journal or doctrinal publication. Further an analysis of the breakout and pursuit Walker's XX Corps executed in Normandy and later the performance of the Eighth Army during the first weeks of combat in Korea reveal how General Walker applied contemporary training principles to develop combat formations that performed exceptionally well in combat. Finally a review of current training principles demonstrates that Walker emphasized the same principles throughout his career that retain primacy in today's Army. This reveals Walker's lasting legacy: in addition to performing among the best of the Army's commanders in combat Walker set himself apart as one of the leading trainers in U.S. Army history.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>