Gerald S. Walker

Gerald S. Walker was a colonel in the United States Army who served in the defense attaché offices of the American embassies in San Salvador and Panama City and later directed the School of Attaché Training of the Defense Intelligence College.

Defense attaché in San Salvador and Panama City

Associated Press reports of June 27, 1985 describe a former U.S. defense attaché, Col. Gerald Walker, who served in the defense attaché office at the U.S. embassy in Panama City after serving in a similar capacity in San Salvador.¹ The Department of State's Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts lists a "Ltc Gerald V. Walker" of the Army as defense attaché at the embassy in Panama in its 1983, 1984 and 1985 editions, and a Col. Allen C. Cornell in that office in the 1986 edition.² The printed middle initial in the State Department listings is V.

The Avila depositions, 1985

On January 3, 1981, gunmen killed the American land-reform advisers Mark David Pearlman and Michael P. Hammer and the head of the Salvadoran land institute, Rodolfo Viera, in the coffee shop of the Sheraton Hotel in San Salvador. In June 1985 an unnamed U.S. embassy official told the Associated Press that depositions had been taken before Judge Rolando Calderón Ramos, who was presiding over the trial of two former national guardsmen, and that the Walkers' deposition said they had known the Salvadoran Army captain Eduardo Alfonso Avila since 1978 and that after the killings he confessed his involvement to them during a conversation at their home in Panama City. The same account says Avila had served as military attaché at the Salvadoran embassies in San José and Panama City.¹

A report in The Mercury of Manhattan, Kansas, the following day identifies the colonel as "Col. Gerald S. Walker" and states that his wife, Patsy S. Walker, testified that Avila made an emotional confession to her in 1982 and threatened to harm her children if she told others; the report adds that Colonel Walker also testified against the captain.³ The Miami Herald reported on June 27, 1985 that the evidence of "U.S. Army Col. Gerald Walker and his wife" had not been brought to court originally because U.S. officials thought it might be used against another Salvadoran army officer implicated in the murders, according to unnamed sources.⁴

School of Attaché Training, 1987 to 1988

The United States Government Manual 1987/88 lists Col. Gerald S. Walker, USA, as director of the School of Attaché Training at the Defense Intelligence College, under the Commandant, Col. John D. Macartney, USAF, and the Dean of the School of Professional Studies, Col. Felix M. Fabian, USAF; the Official Congressional Directory for 1987 gives his telephone extension in the same listing.⁵ The 1988/89 edition of the Manual lists Laurence McK. Bearse as acting director of the School of Attaché Training.⁶ The College prepares military and civilian personnel for duty in the Defense Attaché System.⁶

Gerald S. Walker of CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P.

A Gerald S. Walker is named, with Carter Cornick and Eugene Propper, on the short forms filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P. (registration 4294, September 18, 1989 to October 25, 1990), whose foreign principal was the Government of Jamaica, and the 1990 edition of Washington Representatives lists Cornick and Gerald S. Walker as the firm's representatives for Jamaica at 1800 Diagonal Road, Alexandria, Virginia.⁷ Records found do not establish whether the registrant is the Army colonel. The firm's June 1990 resume packet in the papers of Danny Casolaro describes seven associates and does not list Walker.⁸