John T. Walton was an American war veteran and one of the sons of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. Born and raised in Newport, Arkansas, John graduated from Bentonville High School. He was a very talented athlete and a star of his high school football team. He had an artistic inclination right from his childhood. As he loved playing flute, he dropped out of college to spend more time playing the flute and enlisted in the United States Army. He served in the Vietnam War where he was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery after saving his fellow injured soldiers as a Combat Medic. Walton served in the Green Berets as part of the Studies and Observations Group (SOG). He was involved in combat in the A Shau Valley and in Laos, where he was second-in-command of a unit named "Spike Team Louisiana." After his military service, he returned to the United States and began working as a pilot for Walmart. He also founded his own companies (Satloc and Corsair Marine). He was an adventure sports enthusiast and indulged in skiing, mountain biking, hiking, skydiving, and scuba diving. He was flying an ‘experimental aircraft’ on the afternoon of June 27, 2005, when his plane crashed and he died in the incident. At his death, he was worth $18.2 billion. He was one of a very few ultra-wealthy Americans who believed in serving his country in the military.