Kenneth A. Walsh

Kenneth Ambrose Walsh (November 24, 1916 – July 30, 1998) was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and a Medal of Honor recipient who was the fourth-ranking USMC fighter ace in World War II with a record of 21 enemy planes destroyed. He also served in Korea during the first year of the Korean War and retired from the Marine Corps in February 1962.

Early life Walsh was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1933.

Military career Walsh enlisted in the Marine Corps on 15 December 1933, at age 17. Following recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, he became an aircraft mechanic and radioman at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. He was still a private when he received his Wings of Gold as a U.S. Naval Aviator on 26 April 1937, but was promoted to corporal soon thereafter. He flew scout-observation aircraft over the next four years on three aircraft carriers, over the Solomon Islands which earned him the Medal of Honor. He returned to the United States on 15 October 1943.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt shakes hands with Walsh while Admiral Ernest King, Lieutenant General Alexander Vandegrift, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard, and Mrs. Beulah Walsh look on. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented Walsh the Medal of Honor on 8 February 1944; he was promoted to temporary captain effective 8 February when he received the award and was promoted to permanent captain on 13 November 1948. He scored his last kill while serving as the Operations Officer of VMF-222 at Okinawa on 22 June 1945. He became the Assistant Operations Officer of Marine Aircraft Group 14, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing on Okinawa. He returned to the United States in March 1946.

Walsh served in Korea during the Korean War with VMR-152 (Marine Transport Squadron 152), flying C-54 transports, from 15 July 1950 to late July 1951.