Walter “Walt” Eldredge was born in Baton Rouge Louisiana in 1946. He earned an Eagle Scout badge, then sauntered off to frigid Massachusetts to attend MIT. There he became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and graduated on the Dean’s List in Mechanical Engineering. Choosing from a wide variety of job offers, he found that one of his main evaluations was people. “I was constantly thinking ‘What would it be like to be on a team with these guys? How would it be working with them for twenty years?’ It dawned on me that I was not going to find any better people than those at the Baton Rouge Refinery where my father had worked since he came home from the war. I had a pretty good read on his contemporaries. I had dated their daughters and drank under-age beer with their sons. So, I went to work there because I thought the people were the best.

 

Fifty-seven years later, I still think that was a good decision.”  Those forty years were filled with assignments that varied from financial analysis to machinery repair to media spokesperson. Off the job he participated in a host of civic activities including Reserve Police Officer, President of the Louisiana Council on Child Abuse, Scoutmaster and Sunday School teacher. In 1992 Walter attended a reunion of his father’s World War II unit. Over the next few years, he befriended many veterans from World War II and the Korean War. The result of these friendships, plus weeks of research in the National Archives, was the story of a unique unit – the 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion. In World War I they conducted chemical warfare. In World War II there was no chemical warfare, so they put their 4.2-inch chemical mortars to work firing smoke and high explosive in close support of infantry. They were in such high demand that only one unit in the entire U.S. Army fought more days in combat. They extended this record in Korea where they served 1007 consecutive cays in combat, never relieved or placed in reserve. Walt captured the battalion’s record in two books: Finding My Father’s War: The 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion in World War II and Red Dragons: The 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion in Korea.

 

For years Walter and his wife Peggy organized reunions for the veterans. During this time, they made contacts with the successor to the old battalion, the 2D Chemical Battalion at Fort Hood (now Cavazos) in Texas. The reunions became the annual Battalion Honors Week, organized by Walt and Peggy, at which they do a series of presentations and displays highlighting the battalion’s rich history from World War I to the present day. For their work both Walt and Peggy have received military honors. He has been inducted into the Order of the Dragon, an honor rarely bestowed on civilians, and awarded the Army Civilian Achievement Medal.  Peggy has received the Order of Lacoan from the 48th Chemical Brigade, which is the Army’s only operating Chemical Brigade.

 

In eighteen years of retirement Walt has continued to make professional contributions, working for Becht Engineering and Ecoscience Resource Group. His retirement work has focused on global training, notably a successful course in leadership skills which has been taught in the U. S. the U. K. and Singapore. During his time with ExxonMobil, Walt collected experiences, anecdotes and details that illustrated his high opinion of his co-workers. Out of this mosaic of memories came his third book: Boiling Oil: One Hundred Years of ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Refinery.

 

Somehow, Walt and Peggy found time to backpack together (Big Bend National Park is a favorite destination) and to sail the Gulf Coast in their 28-foot Mariner, named Silverseas. Married 30 years, theirs is a blended family encompassing Walt’s three boys Judson, Will, Thomas, and Peggy’s two daughters Amanda and Sarah, who have between them four grandchildren (Alexis, Scarlett, Violet and D.J.)  Future plans? “I’m going to write a faith-based drama,” says Walt. “I’m waiting on guidance to choose among the many potential stories to tell.”