of the demolished industries that have brought us to our knees." They were unable to persuade the commission to recommend an independent air force, although it did agree that the Air Corps should be granted greater autonomy within the Army. The commission concluded that "there is ample reason to believe that aircraft have now passed far beyond their former position as useful auxiliaries ... An adequate striking force for use against objectives both near and remote is a necessity for a modern army". The appearance in 1935 of the Boeing B-17 bomber gave the bombardment advocates the weapon they had long dreamt of. Not only could it carry an impressive bomb load of of bombs for or for , but its top speed of was faster than that of the contemporary P-26 fighter. Its high speed also led the bombardment advocates to downplay the danger posed by antiaircraft fire. Walker's marriage ended in divorce in 1934, after he had an affair. He remarried and had a son named John, but his second marriage also ended in divorce. Walker graduated from the Command and General Staff School in June 1935 and was posted to Hamilton Field, first as Intelligence and Operations Officer of the 7th Bombardment Group, and then as commander of the 9th Bombardment Squadron. While landing a Martin B-12 bomber, he overshot the runway. The station commander, Brigadier General Henry Arnold reported that Walker, "supposed to be one of our best pilots, apparently cuts out completely, uses up and finally hits a concrete block and spoils a perfectly good airplane when he normally would have given her the gun and gone around again." After fifteen years in the rank, jokes circulated about his being the most senior first lieutenant in the Air Corps, but he was finally promoted to captain on 1 August 1935. He was temporary major from 20 October 1935 to 16 June 1936, and again on 4 October 1938, before the rank finally became substantive on 1 July 1940. He had another accident in 1937, when he crashed a B-17 on takeoff from Denver Municipal Airport but this time his flying skills were credited with saving the entire crew of nine from injury. In 1938 Walker began a three-year tour in Hawaii, where he was operations officer of the 5th Bombardment Group at Luke Field, executive officer at Hickam Field, and then commander of the 18th