Col. Jennifer Walker always wanted to be a doctor. The Army offered her the education she needed and the opportunities she sought to hone her skills as a physician. Here she is with her husband, Chad Walker, also a veteran Army officer.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Chad Walker: So Jennifer, can you tell me, why did you choose the military and Army for service to the country?
Jennifer Walker: Well, even in high school, I knew I wanted to be a family physician but I didn't really know how to get there. My dad had served in World War II but I really didn't know anything about the military as a career except for maybe watching every single episode of “M*A*S*H.” My family didn't have any money to send me to college, so I had a high school teacher tell me about this Army ROTC scholarship. I had good grades, I was physically fit and I was really competitive. And so I competed for and was awarded a four-year scholarship to attend college. I got offered my first assignment — wherever I wanted to go — and so I got to go to a small U.S. Army Base in Germany. And to be honest, I really hadn't intended to serve more than those four years but the Army just kept offering me interesting assignment after interesting assignment. One assignment just sort of rolled into the next one into the next one into the next. Before I knew it, I had completed a 20-year career as an Army physician, and I retired at the rank of colonel in 2016. I had the opportunity to serve with soldiers from diverse backgrounds and I really learned to appreciate the commonalities that we shared, despite our ethnic and cultural differences.
CW: Was there ever a time that you had the opportunity to represent the United States in an unusual situation?
JW: (Laughter) Why yes, Chad. I got to represent the U.S. Army during Armed Forces Week on the game show Jeopardy in 1999. That's probably my claim to fame. I have a picture of me with Alex Trebek, and everybody that comes into my office makes a comment, “Oh, you were on Jeopardy.” They don't ask me about my combat ribbons, or any of my other interesting pictures. They just want to hear what that was like to be on TV.
CW: Is there anybody else that you might have met in the Army that might have changed your life?
JW: Well, I was deployed to Mosul, Iraq, and I met this talkative Army engineer who was of a similar rank as me. Fast forward about a year and a half and we got married and that would be Lt. Col. Chad Walker.
Jennifer sums up her service in this way:
JW: Service as a military physician gave me a sense of confidence that I can serve anywhere in the world.
The full interview will be preserved in the Library of Congress. Access the full interview between Jennifer and Chad at the StoryCorps Archive.
See more local stories from the Military Voices Initiative at hawaiipublicradio.org/storycorps
In June 2022, HPR teamed up with StoryCorps to gather audio conversations from Hawai‘i residents about their military experiences. The Military Voices Initiative provides a platform for veterans, service members, and military families to share their stories. In doing so, we honor their voices, amplify their experiences, and let them know that we — as a nation — are listening. These interviews were facilitated by Hazel Diaz, Isabella Gonzalez, Cole Johnston and Franchesca Peña.
The audio segments were produced for Morning Edition and All Things Considered by John Kalani Zak. He shares his perspective on working with the Military Voices Initiative segments in his producer's notes. HPR and StoryCorps encourage our community to tell their own stories using the StoryCorps app. Learn more at StoryCorps.org.
Local support for this series comes from Hawai‘i Pacific University.
