When Dreams Take Flight: Brigadier General Christopher Walker

By Alicia Willard

Click here to watch the change of command ceremony.

With his sights set on the heavens, as a boy Christopher “Mookie” Walker dreamed only of flying. Soon after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy, he found himself on a career path that allowed him to spread his wings and explore his passion for flight. An adventurous career during which he traveled the world, flew C-130s into hurricanes and fought to defend freedom has culminated in his appointment as the brigadier general of the West Virginia Air National Guard (WVANG)

In this role, Walker serves as the assistant adjutant general and commander, giving him command and control of all operations for the WVANG and making him the principal advisor to West Virginia’s adjutant general on all matters related to the reserve military force. The formal change of command ceremony that took place in February 2019 made history as Brigadier General Paige Hunter, the first female assistant adjutant general in the state’s history, transferred responsibility, authority and accountability to Walker, the first African-American to hold this position in the Mountain State.

Born to Fly

Growing up in Jamaica, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, Walker remembers watching TV programs about the Apollo space missions. At the age of 5, he shared with his mother his dreams of flying and being an astronaut, and as he grew older, he realized those dreams—which were fueled by his love of science fiction and space-faring heroes—were not out of reach.

“This was the sort of thing I saw on TV, and at a very young age I knew that’s what I wanted,” says Walker. “I did not become an astronaut, but it’s not too late. Maybe before I retire, I’ll get a chance to go on one of those SpaceX missions. You never know.”

As a teenager, he did what most adolescents do: he set out to make money where he could. He landed a job as a telemarketer for the National Survey
Research Group. He knew he didn’t want to survey people about their opinions on movies for the rest of his life, though, so he buckled down and studied, intent on joining the U.S. Air Force Academy after high school graduation.

“As a youngster, I didn’t have any money to take flying lessons, so I thought I would have the military teach me,” he says.

Living the Dream

After graduating from the Air Force academy in 1988, Walker attended flight training at Mather Air Force Base in Mather, CA. He was appointed second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, and his first assignment was with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. Known as the Hurricane Hunters of the Air Force Reserve, this group was tasked with flying C-130s into hurricanes to conduct tropical storm reconnaissance. Walker was assigned to the mission from 1989-1991, and it was during that time he realized he had chosen the right path. He was living his dream.

Most of Walker’s deployments were to tropical locations like Antigua and Barbados. There, he and his fellow troops waited for hurricanes to move closer to the U.S. so they could fly into the storms to measure wind speed and air pressure and transmit results back to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service.

Walker’s next assignment was with the 50th Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base. From there, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia before heading to the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, where he was able to fly throughout Asia.

“Kenya, Mombasa, Somalia, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia—I got to see places I would have never gotten a chance to see if I’d gone into any other career field,” he says. “Most people in the United States may have seen these places in books or on TV, but I got to be there. And I didn’t just visit these places for one day. I was able to stay there and learn about the cultures.”

After 400 combat and combat support hours, Walker left active duty in 1997 to join the Air National Guard as a C-130H3 evaluator navigator. He served in various operations and contingencies such as Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Joint Guard, Operation Joint Forge and Operation Coronet Oak. Walker also served as a special assistant to the director of mobility forces at the 609th Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and as a civil aviation advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Transportation with the Coalition Provisional Authority. Finally, Walker served as the director of and led the Air National Guard’s Crisis Action Team, acting Air Mobility Division chief at the 609th CAOC and deputy director of air, space and information operations.

A Home Among the Hills

Between active duty and the Air National Guard, Walker has lived all over the world: Sacramento, CA; Biloxi, MS; Little Rock, AK; and Tokyo, Japan. When he was offered a full-time technician position in Martinsburg, WV’s 167th Airlift Wing, he was hesitant, but a fellow pilot convinced him to give the Mountain State a shot, certain Walker would love it.

“He was right,” says Walker. “Growing up in New York City, I was not used to people just talking to me on the street without knowing them. That was considered aggressive because if somebody started talking to you, they wanted something from you. What I love about West Virginia is I know my neighbors’ names. I can walk down the street and talk to people, and that is considered normal. West Virginia has taken very good care of me over the last 20 years.”

A Leader’s Burden

As the first African American to hold the position of brigadier general in West Virginia, Walker was granted the inaugural West Virginia Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs Trailblazer Award. Humbled yet honored to hold the position of brigadier general, he had trepidations at first. Instead of backing down, he looked himself in the mirror and said, “Let’s do this.”

“I know I can do it because, thankfully, I’m surrounded by a lot of great subordinate leaders,” says Walker. “The wing commanders and group commanders are top-notch. They know what we’re supposed to do, and they are going to help make my job a lot easier. I know that in the West Virginia Air National Guard, they are already top shelf.”

In his new role, Walker assists the adjutant general, Major General Jim Hoyer, in making sure the state’s units are ready in their wartime role as well as to support West Virginians in any natural disaster while also ensuring that wing commanders are training airmen to the standards of the active duty Air Force.

“People do not realize that our peers like Russia and China are operating at a much higher caliber,” he says. “I want our people ready for conflict should it arrive, God forbid. We need to get our mindset to a much higher level and be ready for the kind of conflict we were ready for during the Cold War. A lot of us have lost that mentality, and I think it’s time for us to get it back.”

Walker’s goal is to set the stage for those who come after him by maintaining high standards and leading by example. “Success for me would be having a bench full of hard-hitters who could take over for me at any time,” he says. “Even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, they will be able to keep the organization at top-level standards.”