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<em>Walter Lee McCahan</em> lived a soldier’s life, and his death was a soldier’s death, fighting for his country in the company of America’s finest, for a cause he considered noble and just. He was so young, with so much to give, yet so much he had already achieved.</p>
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Walt was born into the Army. His father served a full career during which Walt sampled Army life in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, California, Virginia, and Guam. He spent most of WWII in Harrisburg, PA, his birthplace, while his father Walter commanded within the Division Artillery of the 3rd Armored Division in Europe and his mother Midge, a school teacher most of her life, kept the home fires burning. An only child, Walt had four first cousins who were as close to him as siblings. One cousin, Carolyn Tothero, remembered that Walt was always known as "Lee" until he entered West Point.</p>
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Plebe year in Company M-1 was a breeze for Walt. His leadership strengths were manifested throughout his four years at West Point, as he helped others with military skills and academics. There resonated about Walt an inner strength and quiet confidence about who he was and where he was headed. He was selected to be a cadet corporal and, later, a cadet lieutenant.</p>
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Upon graduation, Walt chose Armor and qualified for Airborne and Ranger Schools en route to Germany for his first troop assignment. He wrote to his cousin, Joann Riley, "It took the shock of Ranger School to make a lot of us realize that the real Army is a lot of hard, dirty work and that leadership ranges from fine subtleties of persuasion to a physical kick in the pants."</p>
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His love of opera, music, the German language, and things Irish just gilded the lily. He was a consummate gentleman, possessed of a certain spark and flair that attracted people to him, including during a charades party at Ft. Benning, GA. When a one-word play was acted out by the dancing of a jig, instandy Walt blurted out the answer: "Brigadoon."</p>
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In Germany, where he commanded a tank company as a lieutenant, his battalion commander said of Walt, "He blends a quiet firmness of will with an aggressive forcefulness that has earned him the respect of his troops and associates."</p>
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Walt was selected to be aide-de-camp to our classmate’s father, MG Frederic J. Brown, CG, 3rd Armored Division, who said of Walt, "He should be considered for promotion ahead of his contemporaries."</p>
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In 1960, he was selected to attend the Royal Armored Corps School in England as an exchange student. There, Walt studied about Lawrence of Arabia, who had once been an instructor at the school. In a letter home, Walt said of T.E. Lawrence, "He was so literate, so perceptive of life and everything about him, and so multifaceted; small wonder he was a legend during his lifetime, let alone now." His comments about Lawrence of Arabia aptly apply to Walt himself.</p>
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Our Classmate, LTG (Ret.) Rick Brown says of Walt, "I’ve known him since he was nine years old. We were both thinking about West Point then. Following his first tour in Viet Nam 1963, he was so proud to have built a Vietnamese unit. His dedication to his calling was truly inspirational. He would have been a very senior Army leader in our class."</p>
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Walt wrote about his advisor duties in Viet Nam, "It’s nothing like the things you study at West Point. It bears no resemblance to the type of war our troops are training for in Europe and yet, this is the sort of shadow war that the communists will probably force us into for the next decade or more."</p>
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His assignment to Ft. Knox, KY, during 1963-66, as a student and with the Armor Board, was where he met and married Beverley (Bunny) Burleson. As his best man, I recall that while we were waiting near the altar, Walt handed me a single yellow rose and said, "Take this to Bunny," who was preparing to walk down the aisle, "and tell her I love her and can’t wait to be her husband!"</p>
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Walt and Bunny added flair to their wedding by riding away from the chapel on top of an armored vehicle, to a reception that was as romantic as one could imagine. The very special couple had only three years together before Walt would leave for his second and, ultimately, fatal tour in Viet Nam. Walt perhaps penned his own epitaph when, in 1965, a few months before their son David’s birth, he wrote, "We are increasing our family by one in July. I think that of all the things I’ve done in life, I approach this one event with more awe than any other."</p>
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In 1966, the McMahan family moved to Ft. Leavenworth, KS, where Walt excelled as a student at CGSC. In July 1967, Walt returned to Viet Nam, and Bunny, now pregnant with their second child, moved home to East Grand Rapids, MI, where their daughter Erin was born in October 1967. Erin never met her father, but each morsel of information adds to her picture of him.</p>
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Walt was Assistant G-3 of the 1 st Cavalry Division for six months before becoming Executive Officer of the 2d Battalion, 8th Cavalry on 5 Mar 1968. Just ten days later, he was killed during an enemy mortar attack at 0200 hours on a landing zone near QuangTri, South Viet Nam.</p>
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Walt lives on in the hearts of us who knew him well. A bright, jaunty, energetic soldier with a gentlemanly air about him, a lover of the finer things in life, he could have been an enormous success in almost any walk of life, but he chose to be a soldier. Now he is marching smartly in the Long Gray Line that has gone before, surely humming his favorite aria from "Fledermaus."</p>
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His love of family and devotion to his friends seals his memory in our minds forever, and his legacy continues in the lives of his two wonderful children.</p>
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<em>Ward LeHardy ’56 and Walt’s classmates, family, and friends</em></p>