Our Arklahoma Heritage: Son of Sam Walton won a Silver Star in Vietnam and died in a 2005 experimental plane crash

John Thomas Walton was born on October 8, 1946, in Newport, the second of four children of Sam Walton and Helen Robson Walton. The family later settled in Bentonville, where his father built the foundation of what would become Walmart.

John grew up in a household that valued hard work and independence. At Bentonville High School he excelled as a star football player while also nurturing an artistic side that included playing the flute. After graduation he enrolled at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Academic life held less appeal than his other interests.

In 1968, stirred by news of the Tet Offensive and frustrated by campus debates that seemed disconnected from the reality of the war, he left college. He enlisted in the United States Army, determined to serve at the highest level possible.

Walton volunteered for the elite Special Forces and trained as a combat medic with the Green Berets. He was assigned to the Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, known as MACV SOG, one of the war’s most secretive and hazardous units.

Operating from Forward Operating Base 1 at Phu Bai with Spike Team Louisiana, he took part in deep reconnaissance missions into the A Shau Valley and across the border into Laos. As the team medic and assistant team leader, he faced the extreme risks that defined SOG operations.

On August 3, 1968, his six man recon team came under attack by a far larger North Vietnamese force armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers. The patrol was quickly surrounded. One teammate was killed, the team leader was severely wounded and temporarily incapacitated by a grenade, and the radio operator suffered a catastrophic leg wound.

Walton fought off advancing enemy soldiers while providing immediate medical care under continuous fire. He applied a tourniquet that saved the radio operator’s life even though the leg was later lost. When the team leader could no longer direct operations, Walton assumed command of the air support requests and called in strikes nearly on top of their own position to break the enemy assault. He continued treating the wounded and engaging the enemy until extraction helicopters arrived. Under heavy fire he helped carry the injured to the aircraft. One helicopter returned for the remaining men despite the danger.

Overloaded, it barely cleared the treeline. For his gallantry, coolness under fire, medical skill, and leadership that day, Walton received the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for valor.

After returning from Vietnam, Walton learned to fly and briefly worked as a pilot for the family company. Seeking greater independence, he left to fly crop dusters over cotton fields across several southern states. He co-founded Satloc, a company that pioneered the use of GPS technology in agricultural aerial application.

Later he moved to San Diego and established Corsair Marine, which built trimaran sailboats. He lived for a time in Durango, Colorado, and eventually made a home near Jackson, Wyoming. An avid outdoorsman, he pursued skiing, mountain biking, hiking, motorcycle riding, skydiving, and scuba diving with the same intensity he had brought to combat.

.Though an heir to one of America’s largest fortunes, he maintained a private and understated life, sitting on the Walmart board after his father’s death but taking little role in day-to-day retail operations. He served as chairman of True North Venture Partners, focusing on venture capital investments.

In 1998 Walton joined with Ted Forstmann to create the Children’s Scholarship Fund. The organization provided tuition assistance so children from low-income families could attend private schools. He became a leading advocate for school choice and vouchers, believing that educational opportunity offered the clearest path out of poverty.

Through the Walton Family Foundation, he supported charter schools and other reform efforts. The fund eventually helped tens of thousands of students. Friends and colleagues remembered him as a quiet, steady presence who devoted time as well as money to the work.

On June 27, 2005, Walton took off from Jackson Hole Airport in an experimental CGS Hawk Arrow ultralight aircraft. Shortly afterward, the plane crashed in Grand Teton National Park. Investigators determined that a rear locking collar on the elevator control torque tube had been improperly reinstalled, causing a loss of pitch control.

He was fifty-eight years old. At the time of his death, estimates placed his net worth at approximately 18.2 billion dollars. He was survived by his wife Christy, their son Lukas, his mother Helen, and his siblings Rob, Jim, and Alice. John T. Walton was buried in Bentonville Cemetery in Bentonville,.