Rockville soldier remembered as ‘invincible’

Walton will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery later this month

His sister, Kyle Cottrell, a retired officer of the U.S. Marines, called Walton a ‘‘champion for the underdog.”

‘‘If there was someone who couldn’t do something for himself, Jimmy was there, whether it was in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Cottrell said. ‘‘He had a big heart and he shared that with the people he knew.”

Cottrell said their family just started a beach vacation when they learned of Walton’s death.

‘‘One minute everyone’s fine, the next minute we’re down and crying,” Cottrell said. ‘‘It’s an emotional time, but we’re a close family ... it was nice to be away and be together.”

Walton was born in Boston and at 7 years old moved to Rockville, where his parents still live. He served as an altar boy at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Rockville.

Cottrell said her brother was an ‘‘adventurer” and recalls climbing rocks with him at Great Falls and rappelling near Rock Creek while growing up in Rockville. She remembers taking bike rides with him down Rock Creek Trail towards Washington, D.C., to look at the monuments.

In 2003, Walton was one of almost 100 skydivers that broke the world record for canopy formations with a 70-way diamond formation.

He once decided to kayak down the Mississippi River ‘‘because it was there,” Cottrell said. Even after running into a barge that sank his kayak, Cottrell said he swam to shore, made some new friends and ‘‘with a smile on his face, kept going.”

‘‘He was an adventurous spirit; there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do,” Cottrell said.

Walton attended St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., where he was named Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadet Colonel — the highest ranking cadet officer — his senior year, according to a statement from St. John’s.

Cottrell said Walton knew as a fourth-grader at Flower Valley Elementary School that he wanted to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.

‘‘He wrote a book in fourth grade that was about how he wanted to go to West Point and he made it his goal to go there,” Cottrell said.

Walton graduated from West Point in 1989 and joined the Army, where he served for almost 20 years.

Walton comes from a family of soldiers. In addition to Cottrell, Walton’s brother is an officer, his brother-in-law is an active duty Marine, and his father served as a doctor in the Army post-World War II, Cottrell said.

Walton was an aviation officer on a military transition team assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, known as ‘‘The Devil Brigade,” in Fort Riley, Kan., the Army said.

The team is a group of about 10 to 30 soldiers who train Iraqi and Afghan soldiers, said Deb Skidmore, a Fort Riley spokeswoman

Walton will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors later this month.

Cottrell said she and her siblings were taught to share their talents with others.

‘‘These are gifts we have on loan to do good,” Cottrell said. ‘‘He believed in what he was doing in Afghanistan.”

Walton has been deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Honduras, Haiti, Korea and Germany, Cottrell said.

Walton lived in Arlington, Va., with his wife Sarah before he was deployed to Afghanistan late last year. They would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary last Thursday.

Walton had a soft spot for animals and made several trips to volunteer at an animal rescue center in Las Vegas with his wife.

Walton and his wife did not have any children, but Cottrell said he was ‘‘the best uncle I ever saw,” who was playful and would sneak chocolate chips in the pancakes for his nieces and nephews.

‘‘Everyone should have an Uncle Jimmy,” Cottrell said.

When Cottrell’s 14-year-old son heard the news about his uncle, he was shocked.

‘‘He said, ‘I thought Uncle Jimmy was invincible, Mom,’” Cottrell said. ‘‘And I said, ‘We all did.’”