Air Force Maj. William Walker, assigned to the 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, died on April 22, 2024, in Indonesia as the result of heat injury and acute kidney failure. (U.S. Air Force)
A 42-year-old Air Force major died from heat injury and acute kidney failure in 2024 while scouting a potential parachute drop zone in Indonesia, an Air Force investigation has concluded.
Maj. William Walker, with the 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, was leading a drop zone survey team in the vicinity of Bandung when he failed to show up at a rendezvous point on April 22, 2024, according to the investigation report released Feb. 23.
The drop zone was being surveyed to determine its suitability for the exercise Super Garuda Shield scheduled for later that summer.
Walker was highly experienced in providing risk assessments of air-ground operations and had conducted dozens of drop zone surveys in at least five countries, according to the investigation.
His death underscores the perils of working in high-heat, high-humidity settings, even for those experienced in such terrain.
The high temperature on the day of his death was 93 degrees, with an average 60% humidity.
The team was sent to survey the drop zone — a strip just under two miles long and a half-mile wide — because it lacked a current survey assessment as required by the United States.
The 82nd Airborne Division had last used it as a drop zone in 2013, which led to “a significant number of injuries and challenging medical evacuations due to the terrain and hazards,” the investigation states.
While still on the ground, the survey team concluded that the drop zone was unusable but decided to walk the entire site to document all relevant hazards to support a definitive decision, the investigation states.
To cover more area, the team broke into smaller groups, with Walker going solo at one point.
He was last seen with a half-filled 32-ounce water bottle and “was not showing signs of fatigue or stress,” the investigation states.
Some team members began feeling adverse effects from the heat as they walked and were cutting short their routes, resting under trees and removing their shirts.
At about 1:30 p.m., Walker messaged a team member that he was “dangerously tired,” was curtailing his walk of the zone’s boundary and returning to the rally point.
The team began searching for him when he was 90 minutes overdue and did not respond to messages. His body was found under a small tree shortly after midnight. Beside him was the still half-filled bottle.
An autopsy was performed four days later by a medical examiner for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
The official cause of death was determined to be “exertional heat injury with acute renal insufficiency,” the investigation states.
Acute kidney injury is common to exertional heat injury or heat stroke.
Walker also suffered from a buildup of fluid in his brain and lungs, another indicator of heat injury, the investigation states.
