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Category: All About Guns
What would you do if you came into some serious money? I don’t mean you inherited a couple thousand bucks from crazy great-aunt Mildred. I mean what would you do if you were suddenly just filthy rich?
We’ve all pondered it. Last week some unidentified person in California won more than $2 billion in the Powerball lottery. Before that guy walked away with all that cash I admit that I entertained myself in quiet moments imagining what I’d do with such a windfall. I’d bless my friends and family, to be sure, but I’d also buy an island along with my own vintage Spitfire. Anyway, considering I have never bought a lottery ticket, the chances of my winning the lottery are pretty small. Of course, the odds wouldn’t change a whole lot had I actually bought a lottery ticket, either. That’s honestly the point.
Some folks are born into money. Others work really hard or are just plain lucky. As the second son of a dime store owner from Arkansas named Sam, John Walton wore his wealth well. In great part, this is likely because young John had known some proper suffering before he got rich. Much of that hard experience he got while in uniform.
John Walton was the second of four kids born to Sam and Helen Walton. In High School, John was a dichotomy. He was a star football player who also enjoyed playing the flute. After graduating from Bentonville High School in Bentonville, Arkansas, he attended the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. In 1968 he dropped out of school so he could better his skills as a flutist. After reading about the Tet Offensive, John Walton enlisted in the Army.
John Walton had good genes and a killer work ethic. In short order, he was a fully qualified Special Forces medic assigned to the Studies and Observations Group in Vietnam. He saw combat in the A Shau Valley as well as in Laos and Cambodia. During his cross-border forays, he was assigned to Spike Team Louisiana operating out of Forward Operating Base (FOB) 1 in Phu Bai. These stone-cold SF warriors would insert via helicopter to monitor movement along the Ho Chi Minh trail and call in air support to interdict enemy formations as the opportunities arose. Such stuff required simply legendary bravery and epic fieldcraft.
August 3, 1968, was a Saturday. SP4 Walton was deep in the suck in the A Shau Valley alongside five other members of his recon team. His unit was compromised and attacked by a numerically superior NVA force. In short order, the team was surrounded and immobilized. With the incoming fire now utterly overwhelming, the team leader called a Prairie Fire mission for any nearby strike assets. Prairie Fire meant that an SF team was about to get annihilated. Anything with a gun or a bomb was expected to answer the call.
The NVA knew that Americans had access to overwhelming firepower and that the key to success was to get in close and stay there. With automatic weapons fire and grenades raking their position, the spike team leader reluctantly called in an A-1 Skyraider to drop on their own position. The strike killed one member of the team, severely wounded the team leader, and blew the radio operator’s right leg off. To make things worse an NVA soldier got a clear line of sight and shot the fourth Green Beret four times with his AK-47 before being killed by John Walton, the only team member still intact.
John was an SF medic, and those guys could do some amazing medicine in the field. SP4 Walton assumed command of the team and went to work stabilizing the wounded while also manning the radio. Amidst everything else, SP4 Walton continued working the Tac Air, calling down fire on the tenacious NVA troops.
Three rescue helicopters answered the call. The first onsite was an antiquated H-34 Kingbee flown by a South Vietnamese pilot named CPT Thinh Dinh. The H-34 was, by the standards of the day, a piece of crap. Powered by a reciprocating radial engine rather than the jet turbines that drove American aircraft like the UH-1 Huey and OH-6 Loach, the H-34 was woefully underpowered, particularly in the thick hot environment of the A Shau. Despite suffocating ground fire, CPT Thinh bravely brought his aircraft into a nearby clearing and set it there as enemy rounds chewed through the airframe.
SP4 Walton dragged his teammates out to the aircraft one at a time until the antiquated helicopter was as heavy as it could be and still fly. Walton, for his part, would have to wait on the next bird. As soon as the young medic was clear CPT Thinh lifted off and nosed over toward the nearest field hospital. Then he heard over the radio that the next two rescue aircraft had turned away due to the overwhelming volume of ground fire. With that, CPT Thinh torqued his overloaded Kingbee around and headed back into hell.
Thinh landed his fat aircraft in the same spot and stayed there until Walton could get on board. However, now the old helo couldn’t hover. With enemy automatic weapons fire chewing the aircraft to pieces, the brave South Vietnamese pilot got the aircraft teetering up on its forward landing gear struts. In this awkward configuration, he pivoted the machine around until it faced a nearby draw. He then allowed the helicopter to roll downhill until he could take advantage of effective translational lift and actually break ground and clear the jungle. In this sordid state, CPT Thinh nursed his stricken aircraft to safety, saving Walton’s life in the process. Once the dust settled SP4 Walton was awarded the Silver Star for his courageous actions in saving his team from certain death.
In the aftermath of this particular mission, Walton confided to his friends that, if he lived to get home, he planned to buy a motorcycle and travel. Along the way, he hoped to learn to fly and explore Mexico, Central, and South America. For many to most folks, such stuff would never get past the dream phase. However, this was Sam Walton’s son. As we discussed before, he had good genes.
While John was in Vietnam, his father Sam had been busy. By the end of 1967, he had 24 Walmart stores operating in Arkansas. The following year he opened his first stores in Missouri and Oklahoma. By 1975 Walton had 125 stores and 7,500 associates with total sales of $340.3 million.
Soon after John got home he was flying for his father scouting out new locations for Walmart stores. In short order, he left Walmart to work six months out of each year as a crop duster. The rest of the time was spent in a VW bus exploring Mexico and places further afield.
Along the way, he co-founded Satloc, a crop-spraying company that pioneered the use of GPS in aerial chemical applications. He then moved to San Diego and founded Corsair Marine, a company that built trimaran sailboats. He also founded True North Venture Partners, a venture capital organization that used money to make even more money. By then he had accumulated some proper resources.
Despite his newfound wealth, John Walton apparently remained a really nice guy. He started a philanthropy called the Children’s Scholarship Fund that provided low-income kids with money to attend private schools. Like his dad, John still appreciated a modest lifestyle. While he and his wife Christy split their time between their trimaran sailboat and a historic beach house, he nonetheless drove an inexpensive and efficient Toyota hybrid car.
In 2003 his old Special Forces team held a reunion in Las Vegas in honor of the pilots who had supported them in Vietnam. By then CPT Thinh, the stone-cold South Vietnamese pilot who had saved his life in the A Shau Valley, had successfully relocated to Fargo, North Dakota.
He and Walton had remained close for thirty years after the war. However, Thinh lacked the resources to make it to the reunion. John Walton flew his jet up to Fargo, retrieved his old friend and his family, and took them to Vegas for the event.
By 2005 John Walton was worth $18.2 billion. He was the 4th-richest person in America and the 11th-richest person in the world. At 58 he had led a truly extraordinary life. He kept himself fit and healthy and enjoyed skiing, hiking, skydiving, flying, motorcycle riding, and scuba diving.
On June 27, 2005, at around 12:20 in the afternoon, John Walton lifted off from the Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming in a CGS Hawk Arrow homebuilt ultralight airplane. Walton had performed a minor repair on the aircraft previously and improperly installed a rear locking collar on the elevator control torque tube. This allowed the torque tube to slide rearward after takeoff and produce slack in the elevator control cable. The cumulative result was a loss of pitch control. Walton was killed in the resulting crash.
Many folks die peacefully in their beds after a long life lived in obscure anonymity. Others may go out violently or at the mercy of some disease or other. John Walton lived life to the full. Warrior, medic, pilot, husband, father, and philanthropist—John Walton packed an awful lot of living into his 58 years.
Addendum–I draw these projects from whatever I can find online. They are obviously only as accurate as the original source material. A teammate of John Walton’s named John Stryker Meyer reached out about some technical inaccuracies in this piece. Meyer is the character giving the finger to the photographer in one of the previous photos. After a delightful phone conversation I have made the changes. Based upon his personal descriptions, John Walton was clearly a truly extraordinary man.
Meyer authored a book on his experiences with MACV-SOG In Vietnam titled Across the Fence. It is available on Amazon. If the book is anything like he is it is likely a superb read. Thanks, brother.
If you have seen AMC’s new series “The Son” you’ll notice the real start of the show, the Winchester Model 1907 rifle with a 10 shot magazine. In the early 20th century, the Winchester Model 1907 rifle in 351 Winchester caliber was a formidable weapon for close range combat. Originally designed for hunters in thick vegetation, the 351 Winchester Model 1907 rifle soon found a niche as a self- defense arm. The availability of 10 shot magazines increased the rifle’s firepower which easily outclassed the traditional lever action rifles of the period.
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| Two Winchester Model 1907 rifles, The Lebman Model (top) and the standard model (below). |
The traditional lever action rifle chambered in in revolver cartridges like the 38-40, and 44-40 are excellent fighting rifles. However, the Model 1907 with preloaded magazines is quicker to reload, and the 351 Winchester cartridge is superior in range and stopping power to the older rimmed revolver rounds. In fact, the 351 Winchester significantly out performs the more modern 357 magnum with the same weight bullets and barrel lengths. In ballistic gelatin tests under 50 yards, the 351 Winchester outperforms the 5.56 NATO. Beyond 50 yards the 35 caliber round nose bullet decelerates considerably.
The US Army, French, British, and Russian armies used in very limited numbers the Winchester Model 1907 during the First World War era. The rifle was also a favorite of outlaws and law enforcement during the 1920s and 1930s. The vast majority, perhaps 99% of the rifles used on both sides of the law were standard rifles off of store shelves. In the late 1930s, Winchester developed a police variant with a heavier stock and sling swivels for the law enforcement market.
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| French Army motorcycle messenger armed with a Winchester Model 1907 in WW I. |
One of the more interesting variants, which number no more than six to ten original examples are the “Lebman 1907 Winchester” rifles. “Gunsmith to the Gangsters” Hyman S. Lebman equipped these rifles with an aluminum handguard which mounted a Thompson vertical fore-grip, 10 shot magazine, and a compensator of his own design. Lebman converted at least some rifles to fully automatic fire.
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| The Lebman Model 1907, only about 6 of these rifles were made but they were in the hands of Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Homer Van meter. They can be custom built today for collectors. |
Shooting both a Lebman and standard Winchester Model 1907 rifle is a trip back in time. One surprising trait of both rifles is how heavy they feel for their size. The large counter weight under the forearm contributes to the rifle’s heft. The weight and power of the rifle inspire confidence and helped the rifle’s popularity.
While the 1907 does not have the magazine capacity of the far more famous Thompson SMG, it is a rifle which can make quick hits out to 100 yards. Law enforcement used the Model 1907 very heavily in the 1930s. The FBI used a small number of Model 1907 rifles until about 1950. One of the largest users of Model 1907 rifles were several state prison systems. The range and firepower of the Model 1907 were ideal for prison guards. The Ruger Mini-14 replaced the last Model 1907s in service during the early 1970s.
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| After market 10 round, 1930s police 10 round, and standard 5 round magazines. |
For modern shooters, the Winchester Model 1907 is an elusive pleasure. This early semi-automatic suffers from a lack of factory loaded ammunition and hand loading components. This is obviously due to low demand. Unfortunately low demand is very different from no demand. There are many thousands of Winchester 1907s languishing in gun racks simply in need of ammunition. Fortunately, Captech International (formerly Jamison) manufactures occasional runs of .351 Winchester brass. Graf & Sons sells excellent quality .351 diameter 180 gr bullets. This brass and bullet combination on top of an 18 gr charge of IMR 4227 will get a Model 1907 shooting. This load is quite accurate and should perform well on targets or game. It would be nice if JHPs were available to hand loaders for higher performance loads.
Another dogging issue is the availability of replacement magazines. Currently offered aftermarket magazines are not as reliable or as well made as the original OEM magazines or the period police style 10 round magazines. On the aftermarket mags, they usually need the feed lips adjusted and the magazine follower trimmed to function properly.
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| The follower must not interfere with the magazine catch notch or the rifle will jam. the right leg of the follower must usually be trimmed on aftermarket magazines. |
There are several issues with Winchester Model 1907s today. First is most examples have a cracked wooden forearm. The walnut factory stocks were thin and somewhat frail to begin with. Sometimes nearly 100 years of use or neglect has resulted in cracks, sometimes running the length of the forearm. The action of the large counter under the forearm and improper disassembly procedures also contribute to these cracks. Repaired stocks will last, but will almost inevitably crack again in the same place. Lebman solved the cracked forearm problem with a painted aluminum forearm which also mounted a Thompson style vertical fore grip.
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| The aluminum forearm and Thompson style vertical grip on a Lebman model 1907 |
Second, the chambers of these guns are usually fouled or even pitted. If a rifle is exhibiting difficult extraction, thoroughly cleaning and even polishing the chamber with JB Bore brite will help immensely. Third, the rifle should be checked by a good gunsmith and have the recoil buffer checked and the trigger assembly inspected. These rifles have difficult trigger pulls which take some getting used to. However, they should be inspected to insure proper operation. The recoil buffers dry our and wear out and should be replaced, especially the early ones which may be 110 years old.
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| Lebman recoil brake on a 16 inch barrel. |
These rifles and the .351 cartridges are ideal for whitetail deer sized game at 100 yards or closer. Although heavy for it’s size the rifle is fast handling and given the trigger and sights, quite accurate. Offhand 3 shot groups at 25 yards consistently have all 3 shots holes touching.
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| Winchester model 1907 standard 20 inch factory barrel. |
The Winchester Model 1907 is an overlooked but historically important part of firearms history. It is a rewarding rifle to shoot, but it can present some obstacles in terms of ammunition and magazines.
