25 years ago, this University of South Carolina graduate gave his life in Desert Storm

Kim Walters, an English teacher at Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was preparing for her school day in February of 1991 when she was summoned over the school’s public address system to the principal’s office.

Her heart dropped.

Her husband, Capt. Dixon Walters Jr., was serving on an AC-130H “Spectre” gunship in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. An AC-130 is a converted U.S. Air Force transport plane armed to the teeth to give close air support to troops fighting on the ground.

“I knew,” said Kim.

She was met by an Air Force officer and a minister in the office and given the bad news that Dixon had been killed. Dixon, who attended high school in Barnwell, S.C., died along with 13 others crew members of the Spirit 03 aircraft during the battle for the Saudi Arabian town of Kafji, just south of the Kuwaiti border. It was the opening battle of Operation Desert Storm.

“I didn’t take it very well,” she said.

More than a half million American servicemen and women took part in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm – together known as the Gulf War or First Gulf War. It was the opening American salvo in the wars that still rage in the Middle East today.

The war was a short one, lasting from August 1990 to February 1991. Walters was one of 292 U.S. service members who gave their lives in the conflict.

This Memorial Day, Walters’ daughter, University of South Carolina Medical School graduate Jessie Bush, was due to give birth in Washington, D.C., to her first child. She plans to name the baby Dixon for her father and Stephen for her stepfather, Stephen McCarthy.

Walters is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, just a few miles away. Jessie was only 3 years old when he died

“I remember standing on his feet to dance with him in the living room,” Jessie said, “and sneaking up on him while he was sleeping in the hammock and flipping it with my grandfather, causing him to spill onto the ground. I’m sure he knew I was coming and only pretended to be sleeping, but that is what made him so special.

“Mostly, I know I grew up with him as one of my heroes and was very proud to be his daughter,” she said.

‘A complete gentleman’

Dixon and Kim met at the University of South Carolina.

Dixon was the son of an Army recruiter, Dixon Walters Sr., who eventually attended high school in Barnwell. Kim grew up in West Columbia, and was a year older than Dixon.

They hit it off.

“He was just the nicest person you would ever meet,” Kim said from her daughter’s home, awaiting the birth of her first grandchild. “A complete gentleman.”

She described Dixon as an athletic type who loved to bike, swim, hike and do triathlons. But he also excelled at school. Kim was an English major, bookish, a self-proclaimed “nerd.”

“He was also an amazing writer. One of those people who could do everything,” Kim said. “He was just the neatest guy.”

Walters majored in accounting at USC and received his degree. But he worked for only one year as a certified public accountant, in Columbia .

“He really just wanted to fly planes,” Kim said. “But his eyesight kept him from being a pilot.”

Kim said he probably got his degree because it was expected by the family and so he could go to officer’s candidate school, which he did, in San Antonio, Texas.

“I was reluctant about that because of the danger,” Kim said. “But that was his passion, and I supported it.”

Very accurate, very deadly

Walters became a captain in the U.S. Air Force, and joined the 16th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Air Force Base at Fort Walton Beach, which flew the AC-130H Spectres. Kim, little Jessie and the couple’s baby son, Hunter, who now lives in Columbia after attending USC, lived there as well.

The modified C-130 transports are propeller-driven airplanes and slow moving. They have a crew of 14 and were outfitted with sophisticated flight avionics and a series of guns on the left hand side: 20-, 40-, and 105-millimeter cannons, capable of doing tremendous damage to people and equipment on the ground.

They were used to great effect in Vietnam, and are still used for close air support today in places like Afghanistan.

“We provide air support for friendly ground forces,” said retired Chief Master Sgt. Bill Walter of Fort Walton Beach, who served with Walters in the 16th Special Operations Squadron. “It’s very accurate and very deadly.”

Walter remembers Walters as a quiet officer, very professional, who didn’t drink and often kept apart from the often-rowdy special ops crews, in part because Walters served as the squadron’s executive officer.

“He liked to ride really high-end bikes,” Walter said. “He used to keep a bike in his office and would ride it on lunch breaks and after work. He was pretty athletic. He really took care of himself.”

Walters was an electronic warfare officer, tasked with operating electronic equipment meant to counter threats from opposing missile systems.

“He was very professional,” Walter said. “He was good at his job.”

The first engagement of the war

The 16th Special Operation Squadron was sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 as part of Operation Desert Shield.

On Jan. 29 1991, Saddam Hussein launched an assault from Kuwait into Saudi Arabia. Despite a fierce defense from coalition forces, a large Iraqi contingent of 40 tanks and 500 troops occupied the town of Khafji near the Kuwait and Saudi border.

While U.S. and allied ground forces pulled back from Khafji, two Marine reconnaissance teams were left behind and became completely surrounded. It was the first major ground engagement of Operation Desert Storm.

Allied air forces immediately began bombarding the Iraqis in Kafji, among them three AC-130H gunships called Spirit 01, Spirit 02 and Spirit 03, according to articles written by Walter, who later investigated the downing of Walters’ Spirit 03.

During the evening of Jan 30, Spirit 01 and Spirit 02 went into action over Kafji, while Spirit 03 prepared to take off later that night, Walter wrote. Spirit 03 reached the city as the other two aircraft expended their fuel and ammunition.

By 5:30 a.m. Walters’ aircraft opened fire and continued the attack for about an hour. Low on fuel, the crew was preparing to return to base when an Iraqi surface-to air missile hit the left wing directly between the engines.

“It was a lucky shot,” Walter told The State. “Five feet either way and the crew would have landed safe at home with a great story to tell.”

‘Appreciate them every day’

The aircraft caught fire, then the left wing broke off. Walters’ plane spiralled out of control, plunging 9,000 feet into the Persian Gulf.

There were no survivors.

Walter, who investigated the crash and has listened to the cockpit recordings, said the crew performed well.

“I’ve listened to the last 30 minutes of their lives 60 times,” he said. “They did the job they were supposed to do.”

The downing hit the other squadron members hard.

“I was p...ed off,” Walter said. “Angry. You want to figure out what went wrong. It always sucks, but it’s part of life in this line of business.”

Walters’ wife, Kim, would eventually remarry. She and her current husband, Stephen, have two other children, twins Cayce (yes, named after the town) and Patrick. Both attend USC.

A scholarship at USC named for Walters is awarded to the child of a serviceman or servicewoman killed in action.

Kim faces this weekend with mixed emotions – joy with the birth of her first grandchild; and sadness at Dixon’s death.

“Anyone who goes into the service goes in as a calling,” she said. “We need to honor these men and women, especially when times are this precarious.

“Appreciate them every day,” she said. “Value the relationships. Because, you never know.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 12:07 PM with the headline "25 years ago, this University of South Carolina graduate gave his life in Desert Storm."