Stationed west of Lewiston, Montana, at a satellite field of the Great Falls Army Airbase established during 1942 to train B-17 Flying Fortress crews, he would have been deployed to join the war in Europe within weeks --- but that was not to be.
A crew of 11 was aboard B-17 42-6062 as midnight Aug. 24-25 approached. The men had just completed a routine night training flight over the Glasgow bombing range and were returning to Lewiston through an intense electrical storm. Three B-17s had made the flight. Two made it home safely.
But the fact vital equipment needed to pilot the plane during the storm had not been installed and/or malfunctioned, investigators concluded, brought the third down at 11:30 p.m. on the Fred Gibson ranch some two miles from Dovetail Butte on South Crooked Creek north of Winnett. All 11 men, including Walt, were killed.
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Lieutenant Eckerman's parents were Clarence Ray and Agnes Eckerman --- his father a science teacher at Chariton High School. They learned that their son was missing via telephone Thursday morning. His death was confirmed in a telegram received just after noon.
The following report was published on Page 1 of The Herald-Patriot of that date --- Aug. 26:
Lieut. Walter L. Eckerman, 24, bombardier in the Army Air Force, was killed Wednesday in a plane crash near Lewistown, Mont. A telephone message from his captain was received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Eckerman, here Thursday morning. It was stated that the plane had not been found.
Eckerman graduated from Chariton High school in 1936. Later he took up his junior college course here and graduated in 1939. In 1941 while working at Burlington he took a flying course at the junior college there.
He enlisted in May, 1942, and was called to active duty in October of that year. He received his bombardier wings at the Army Air Forces Bombardier School at Childress, Texas, on May 13, 1942. He was home on leave recently and since August 9 had been stationed at Lewistown.
He is survived by his parents, two brothers and one sister, Clarence, who is in the army in North Africa, Bob, who is in the Navy stationed at Great Lakes, Ill., and Margaret at home.
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The Eckermans were members of Chariton's First Christian Church and that's where funeral services for Lieut. Eckerman were held a week later, on Tuesday, Aug. 31, followed by burial in the Chariton Cemetery.
Walt's brothers, Clarence and Robert, returned home safely after the war; his parents moved to Burlington, where Ray died during 1976 and Agnes, during 1985. Their remains were brought to Chariton for burial near their son.
Robert settled in New York and Clarence, in Des Moines. Margaret returned to Chariton to live after her mother's death. Clarence and Margaret, too, are buried on the family lot in the Chariton Cemetery.
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Many years after that fatal 1943 crash, a memorial cenotaph commemorating the crew was dedicated during August of 2010 in Jordan, Montana, the tiny seat of Garfield County, where the crash occurred.
The monument was purchased by Fred Gregorich, whose brother, Ed, was one of the 11 who died in the crash, too.
Fred and his cousin, Gene Brinkley, visited the crash site during September of 1997 along with a member of the Gibson family, still owners of the property where the crash occurred.
Almost miraculously, they noticed one of Ed Gregorich's dog tags glittering among litter on the ground at the remote crash site as they were preparing to leave.
The text that accompanies that dog tag, set into the monument's face reads, "One of Ed Gregorich's dog tags found at the crash site September 1997 by his brother Fred Gregorich and cousin Gene Brinkley."
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