Walter Anderson Ford was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Nathan Elmer Ford and Johnnie Ottaway Burnette.
Private Walter A. Ford, US Army, was a member of the 117th Infantry Regiment, Tennesse National Guard, of the 30th Infantry Division. The Regiment went ashore on Omaha Beach on D-Day +4. In July it was moved into the line to support and relieve the 29th Division, which had been heavily engaged since D-Day with many casualties.
The 30th Division moved into the Normandy region attacking towards St-Lo during July 1944.
Private Ford died of wounds received on the 28th of July 1944. He is interred at Normandy American Cemetery, E,8,41, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 21 August 1944
Pvt. Walter A. Ford, 18, one of three service sons of Mrs. N.E. Ford, 601 East Fifteenth Street, was killed in action in France on July 28, the family has been officially notified. The mother is en route to Texas to visit friends or has just arrived there and the family here were yet unable to communicate with her not having received her address of today. Pvt. Ford was inducted only last December while attending Knoxville High. He was the only one of the four brothers who had not been a full-time News-Sentinel employe, and as a lad he was a News-Sentinel carrier. The father, the late Elmer Ford, was a veteran Knox County peace officer. Pvt. Ford is survived by the mother; two sisters, Misses Bonnie and Betty Ford, of Knoxville; and brothers, Sgt. Ceburn Ford, in England; Marine Sgt. Tommy Ford, in the Pacific and Marion Ford, of Knoxville. Pvt. Ford and Sgt. Ceburn Ford, whose wife is a WAC lieutenant, went overseas near the same time about two months ago.
- Rank: Private
- Date of birth: 13 September 1925
- Date of death: 28 July 1944
- County: Knox
- Hometown: Knoxville
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Battles: Normandy
- Awards: Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XIV, Middle Panel
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