![]() ![]() Walt was born on a Kansas farm, one of 12 children. He also wrote three books in retirement, "Strange War, Strange Strategy," "America Faces Defeat" and "The Eleventh Hour." Gen. When the board finished its work, he filed a minority opinion blasting its chairman, Sen. ![]() In 1974, he was named by President Ford to the nine-member Clemency Review Board that reviewed cases involving draft evasion and military desertions. A year later, Congress authorized a fourth star for the general holding that billet. In 1968, he was named assistant commandant, the corps' second-highest post. Prominently mentioned as a possible Marine Corps commandant, he was passed over for that post. In a story he wrote for The New York Times in 1971, he contrasted Vietnam to World War II and Korea as a war that was fought, on one level, with weapons of immense complexity, and that, on another level, was a "return to medieval war, pitting man against man on a battleground where only the courageous could win." He returned from Vietnam as chief of staff for manpower and personnel director at Marine Corps Headquarters. He maintained that his men could win the war, one he contended was the most misunderstood in history. He was blunt, brash, tough, husky, tireless and seemingly always at the front lines. During his years in Vietnam, he was to many the picture of what a U.S. His men served in the crucial I Corps region of northern South Vietnam. He commanded the III Marine Amphibious Force and the 3rd Marine Division, leading nearly 75,000 Marines. From 1965 to 1967, he served in South Vietnam as a major general and then lieutenant general and won the Distinguished Service Medal. ![]() He won the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star, with combat "V" devices, in that war. In Korea, he served as a regimental commander and then chief of staff of the 1st Marine Division. The Navy Cross is the corps' highest award for valor with the exception of the Medal of Honor. A veteran of the great Pacific campaigns of World War II, he was a company and regimental commander, winning two Navy Crosses and a Silver Star and receiving a Purple Heart. Walt, 76, a retired four-star general, former Marine Corps assistant commandant and a highly decorated combat veteran of three wars, died March 26 at the Naval Home in Gulfport, Miss. ![]()
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