By Nathan Straus
nstraus@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Taylor’s Chapel Church Pastor Benny Walker didn’t have to fight in World War II, but he chose to enlist.
As a seminary student in Waxahachie, Walker was exempted from the normal draft obligations of the WWII-era United States, but he felt God had called him to serve in the military.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was studying at Southwestern Seminary in Texas. Because of his studies at the seminary, Walker had no obligation to enlist in the Army, nor could he be drafted. Many of his friends, however, found themselves taken from their safe surroundings and placed in boot camp.
“My friends were gone to war,” he said. “I walked by the streets and they were empty. There were no other guys there.”
Military service appealed to Walker in perhaps one of the most widely publicized ways in American history. One day, he walked to his local post office and noticed an attention-grabbing poster of a patriotic-looking man with his index finger pointed dead ahead.
“Uncle Sam wants you”, it proudly declared.
It was not a difficult decision for Walker, he said. Home life had become something close to uncomfortable, and his studies at the seminary preparing to do things for God’s service had given way to an entirely new sort of service.
Walker was convinced. The poster was a message from God and America to enlist in the Army and make a difference. In 1942, he began his 13 weeks of basic training before leaving to Mineral Wells, then to Camp Stoneman, Calif. After a three-day wait, he and the 37th division of the 129th Infantry, First Battalion, Company C, shipped off to the Pacific Islands.
His first two battles, the primary portions of his combat career, were described as miracles from God. Walker often reminded his fellow soldiers of his position on the skirmishes, and more recently has spoken about them at conferences and at his church.
At Bougainvillea in the Pacific Islands, his regiment was tasked with building an airfield to allow for easier flight to Japan. The island itself was not uncontested ground, and the Japanese soldiers routinely tried to usurp control of the base.
“They made the mistake of coming to push us off the island,” he said.
While he enjoys relating his story to those who ask, Walker does not often speak of his war experiences, said Michelle Rozell, Brook Hill School teacher.
“You have to pull it out of him,” she said.
One thing to remember about his service is Walker rarely kept his hold on his gun.
“He often ditched it,” Rozell said. “He said he could move faster without it.”
According to Rozell, Walker relied solely on God to see him through to another day, and he had complete faith to back his belief up.
“He was at total peace about what he was doing,” Rozell said, “which is amazing to me because I would have been scared to death.”
Walker’s personal convictions had an undeniable effect on his own outlook of his first battle.
“It was easy,” he said. “I always dwelled on how God helped us, and he helped us there.”
According to Walker, the battles for Bougainvillea essentially pitted clusters of Japanese soldiers marching across open terrain against dug-in Americans. The U.S. troops suffered very little in the way of casualties, Walker said.
There was just one more major incident for Walker’s regiment in the war. Moving from Bougainvillea to the Philippine Islands, they came upon a prison full of captured civilians.
“We had to get them out. But if we stormed the place, then we’d kill our guys too,” he said. “It could’ve been a very difficult situation.”
While his regiment battled Japanese guards and soldiers outside, the prisoners faced a tense situation inside.
Walker learned the Japanese had told the prisoners they would be executed when the Americans came to reclaim them. In a frightening move, a guard even gathered the prisoners into one location and told them to wait. There the prisoners sat, thinking they were experiencing their last moments alive.
But God was at work that day, Walker said. The killing blow never came. The next faces the prisoners saw were friendly, though the former captives needed some gentle words to convince them they were safe.
“Some don’t believe in miracles,” Walker said. “I do. That was a miracle just as much as the parting of the Red Sea was, and it never could’ve happened without God’s intervention.”
Danny Rozell, a Bearcreek Services employee, said Walker is undoubtedly a hero in his book. Not only did the veteran often travel without his rifle, but he often traveled without his rifle in some of the most dangerous situations imaginable.
“He spotted for the mortars, a lot of scouting and spotting right there on the enemy lines,” Danny Rozell said.
Out where he was in life-threatening danger for days at a time from both enemy fire and wayward friendly mortar shells, Walker always put his faith in God.
Rozell said the veteran also ministered to the troops as a chaplain.
Walker was honorably discharged at Fort Sam Houston in December 1945.
A year later, he re-entered the seminary to become a Christian worker and met his wife Louise Stillwell. They married in June 1947 in Tulsa, Okla.
He soon realized he needed a place to minister every Sunday. The Walkers came from Waxahachie and pioneered Taylor’s Chapel Church on Troup Highway, where he still pastors to this day. The church, which started with around eight people, now has a solid congregation in the 20s, with peak attendance near the 80s.
Born south of Athens in Henderson County in January 1922, Walker entered the world as one of 11 siblings.
“Three brothers and seven sisters,” Walker said, “and I still like women.”
He and Louise never had children, though they raised children and supported them in their home, and his wife passed away from cancer in 1991.
Dixie Traylor, an Autry Funeral Home employee in Jacksonville, said through all the hard times, Walker has always been willing to help anyone in need.
“He’s a very caring person,” she said. “He has a keen sense of humor and is always willing to help someone else when he can.”
Having retired from his teaching position, which took him to New Hope and LaPoynor High School as an English and social studies teacher, Walker now devotes his time to ministering to his flock. He doesn’t speak much of his experience in the war, but when he does it is with absolute certainty of God’s protective hand in his life.
