Frank Walker is always referred to as “colonel” even though it’s been 10 years since he retired from the United States Air Force Air National Guard, a job that became his passion, and, a calling that keeps him serving.

“I just feel that a lot of people helped me along the way,” said Walker of his nearly 70 years of life, “serving on a board, and in the military and in the community is a way of me helping to pay back those who helped me.”

Whenever there is a military related public event, it’s Col. Frank Walker who is either the keynote speaker or master of ceremonies, a role he continues to be happy to fill.

“I’m always flattered and honored,” he said, “when they ask this crusty old colonel to speak. Yeah, I do it for a living and the price is free. It’s just one of those things I never went out to do but it’s evolved over the years. I speak and for one reason or another, they call me back year after year.”

Just last week, he hosted a social distanced event for senior veterans of The Heritage, Reflections Memory Care and Lakeview Senior Living to which the public was not invited due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that is especially hard on seniors.

As a honorary member of The Hooligans Flight Team, Walker was able to arrange for a flyover, he said.

And, the American Legion Riders Post 298, the Iron Horse Riders and Patriot Guard rode through on their motorcycles in honor of the senior veterans.

Last year, Walker not only held a large gathering for those veterans at those facilities, but also at the Calhoun County Medical Care Facility which this year has been hit hard by virus spread among residents and staff.

So this year, he asked the Hooligans to fly over those resident veterans, some of whom he said were able to go outside and wave to the pilots.

“The pandemic has obviously changed a lot,” he said. “Because a lot of the events we were going to do for the military and at Ft. Custer, I did get the flyover for that. I went out and the Hooligans did a flyover on Memorial Day. A lot of events have been canceled and people have to live with that.”

That’s why, he said, last week’s event for the senior veterans was so important to him: He knows their families can’t visit them in person except through a window.

Many get no visitors at all.

“As folks get older, people kind of forget, they don’t mean to, we live our lives, we have our families and we go on,” he said of their elders. “We procrastinate. But it’s important for me to say, “hey, you’re not forgotten...I’ll be a voice for you.’”

Although he spoke at the July 18 Talons Out Honor Flight fund raiser at JB Whiskey’s Old Style Grill in Springfield, he also plans to speak at their next fund raiser at Turkeyville USA, Wednesday, Aug. 12, he said.

“I’ll be narrating for the Hooligans and I’ll probably be asked to speak for the military,” said Walker, who wears a mask while in public, he said. 

Walker has lost some acquaintances to the virus, he said, and knows people who have tested positive and urges people to be concerned about contracting it themselves.

“I’m very concerned about anybody that’s vulnerable,” he said. “I would say, if your doctor is concerned, you should be concerned. I’ve lost a few friends and know some that are sick. I shy away from the political aspects. I’m not a doctor and I’m going to continue to pray for everybody and hope it passes and we get a vaccine or whatever. And, I just ask, don’t judge people because they do wear a mask or don’t wear a mask. I’m a law abiding citizen so I do what the governor asks me to do.”

Born in Battle Creek in 1950, Walker attended and graduated Battle Creek Public Schools, then attended Kellogg Community College, graduating in 1968 at the same time the Vietnam War was starting.

“A lot was happening, my mother passed and it was just my dad and he didn’t want me to join,” Walker recalls. “So I joined the Air National Guard so I could go and come back.”

Walker said he always wanted to serve in the military but his family, though patriotic, was not a military family and, growing up in what he calls a “financially challenged” family, the military offered him a career.

“It was something I wanted to do,” he said. “So, I joined at Kellogg Field and off to Lackland (USAF basic training,) I went.”

Walker served in numerous leadership roles during his tenure with the military such as commander and director of Support/J-4 for the Michigan Army and Air National Guard. 

He served as the senior Air liaison officer for the President Gerald R. Ford Funeral.  

Walker was 56 when he was deployed to Kuwait where he traveled throughout CENTCOM to include Afghanistan and Iraq. 

“I just happened to be one of those guys that loved it,” he said. “It felt like an honor to serve and I did go off to the desert and served in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan. I was 56 when I went over there. I was a mission support director, in charge of the aerial ports, for the planes flying into CENTCOM.”

In this assignment, which he called the capstone of his military career, he traveled and worked with soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Djibouti.  

“Once I got the taste of it,” he said of military service. “I was enlisted for a number years before I took my commission. I was a master sergeant before I took my commission. The military grabbed a hold of me. As I was serving, I worked full time (for the ANG) so I always worked either as a civilian or as military for the Department of Defense.”

He has been awarded numerous military medals to include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Force Achievement Medal. 

At the same time, he was married to his high school sweetheart who also happened to be his next door neighbor, Sheila.

“The unsung heroes are really the family members,” he said. “When I went to Kuwait, I don’t know that my wife was all that excited about it and I know my grand young ones don’t like to see grandpa leave.”

Married 50 years last year, the Walkers have two sons, Scott, who with wife Diana, have two sons, Jacob and Tyler, and, Chad.

Although retired he continues to serve as an Academic Liaison Officer with the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado and is an instructor for the Civil Air Patrol at their annual encampment (cadet training).

Walker is a board member and advisor to the Battle Creek Chamber, Military Affairs Committee, is a member of the Fort Custer National Cemetery Advisory board, is a VA volunteer and is Board President of the National Military Support Groups of America.  

He is a member of the Battle Creek Central High School Hall of Fame, was awarded the 2010 Community Service Award by the Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce and has chaired the local Combined Federal Campaign and LFCC numerous times as well as a United Way Campaign Chair and in the cabinet numerous times. 

He is recognized as a long-time master of ceremonies for the Memorial and Veterans Day ceremonies at Fort Custer National Cemetery, the Chamber Armed Forces Day, Veteran’s Appreciation Luncheon and the VAMC Valentine for Veterans Concert where he emceed for concerts by Lee Greenwood, BJ Thomas, and Matt Giraud. 

In the last few years, too, he said, he has often been asked to speak at churches, too, which is somewhat surprising to a military officer considering the dichotomy between war and peace.

“I’ve been emcee at Fort Custer Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies for 20, 25 years,” he said, “Since I was captain.”

He was the Master of Ceremonies of the traveling Vietnam Wall that Heals when it appeared in Richland in 2013. 

He speaks at schools, churches, nursing homes veteran and civic organizations.   

And, he has also spoken at numerous Military Reunions for Discover Kalamazoo.  

He recently served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Barry County Vietnam Era Veteran Lapel Pinning Ceremony, too, he said.  

“You stay young that way,” he said of remaining active, to which he added: “I am old crusty retired Colonel who loves his country, sincerely believes that we are the land of the free because we are the home of the brave, and that it is imperative we as a community recognize the service and sacrifice of those that have served in the military defending the freedoms that many us of take for granted. We must truly understand that freedom is not free. Hopefully, one will remember me as a man who tried very hard to live up to the core values of the United States Air Force. Integrity First, Excellence in all we do, and service before self. One veteran who is forgotten, homeless, addicted, lonely, sick, suffering from PTSD, depressed etc. Is ONE too many! God Bless all our military, veterans and their families and God Bless the United States of America!”