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Memories from the air
From combat missions in Vietnam to the pentagon and beyond
Story by Dalondo Moultrie Photos by Victoria Gaytan AND COURTESY TOME WALTERS
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s a decorated airman and retired military leader who flew Air Force jets during the Vietnam War and later directed a defense agency at the Pentagon, Lt. Gen. Tome H. Walters Jr. said he and his fellow veterans are no better than any other American. As a vet, however, he said he deeply respects and honors them, while some others are just as worthy of the same deep honor and respect. “We ain’t nothing special,” Walters said. “I hold teachers and, after COVID, medical personnel in as high regard as I do my fellow veterans.” Now a New Berlin resident on
the ranch home he shares with his wife Claire, Tome spent more than 30 years in government service. He flew more than 3,500 hours for the United States Air Force, led men and women, and served the country’s Joint Chiefs. But all of that came after his beginnings in Shreveport, Louisiana, where Tome was born and raised. He joined his high school’s Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, graduated and went to Louisiana Tech. There, ROTC leadership learned of his stint at JROTC and offered Tome one of 160 coveted spots in the Air Force Academy’s ROTC program. He took it.
