Lewis Walton’s years serving in the military sent him around the globe from Georgia to Germany and allowed him to play a role in the historic landing of the first man on the moon.
As a member of a communications support team stationed in Germany, Walton facilitated the communication channels between the station and Apollo 11 in 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to land on the moon.
“He was quite proud of that,” said Eileen Walton, his wife of 52 years.
At the time, Lewis and Eileen Walton and their three children lived on the U.S. Army base Stuttgart in Germany.
“It was part of his assignment” with the Army, Eileen said of Walton’s role with the lunar mission. “It wasn’t a choice he made.”
Walton served in the Army for about 20 years, moving every few years to a new location for a new assignment. The one constant was that his work remained in the communications field.
“He really enjoyed communications,” Eileen said. “He liked it because he would get the news before anyone else.”
Walton died on New Year’s Eve at Frederick Memorial Hospital, in Frederick, Maryland, about two years after developing respiratory problems from smoking, according to Eileen. He was 69.
“He was a smoker, and sorry that he ever started smoking,” she said. “And he was sorry that he was never able to quit.”
The Frederick County, Maryland, resident grew up in Portland, Maine, where he and Eileen first met as schoolmates. The two married young, on Friday the 13th one July, and stayed in the area until Walton joined the Army.
“He joined the military on my birthday — the day I was born,” said his daughter Lisa Zimmerman.
After training in New Jersey, Walton was sent to Vietnam in 1966, where he worked with teletype in a communications role, according to Eileen. Upon his return, Walton decided to stay in the military until his retirement in 1983 while working at Fort Detrick, where he remained as a contractor.
“He walked out one day in a uniform and walked in the next day in civilian clothes,” Eileen said, laughing.
Walton continued to work until he had a stroke at the age of 55. Although he “recovered greatly,” according to Eileen, health issues with his respiratory system began to plague him until his death.
Zimmerman described her father as a funny and generous man with a great personality.
“He was always buying things for people in need, just like little gifts” she said, recalling several trinkets he gave her over the years, such as a pencil sharpener that meowed.
Eileen said she remembers “the love of her life” as someone who was constantly jovial and had a wonderful sense of humor.
“He always could make me laugh no matter how upset I was or how sad I was,” she said. “He made friends very easily … he’d met somebody and before you knew it, they’d be laughing and sharing stories.”
Walton’s legacy lives on with his family, Zimmerman said.
“He loved his family,” she said.
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