Ceremony to Honor Uncommon Accomplishments of Noteworthy Aztecs
Kenneth J. Lamberton (’54) and Matthew Gene Axelson; the former an Air Force pilot and the latter a Navy SEAL. Both died in service to their country, both were Aztecs, and the lives of both will be remembered this month by San Diego State University when their names are added to the campus War Memorial.
The names of Kenneth J. Lamberton ('54)
and Matthew Gene Axelson will be added to
the SDSU War Memorial in time for the
November 13 wreath laying ceremony.
The War Memorial stands as a tribute to former San Diego State students lost in service to their country. These 235 men and women will be officially honored at a homecoming wreath-laying ceremony set for Friday, November 13 at the top of Aztec Green.
Lamberton’s and Axelson’s names are being added to the obelisk following approval by the SDSU Alumni Association’s War Memorial Committee. Committee members authorized their inclusion on the monument based on the recommendation of Robert Fikes, Jr., a retired SDSU librarian and researcher.
Fikes wrote a report entitled, “Supreme Sacrifice, Extraordinary Service; Profiles of SDSU Military Alumni.” Frequently updated with the research he uncovers, the report offers details of the lives of Aztecs killed during wartime, including how and when they died.
Fikes discovered both Lamberton and Axelson were Aztec alumni who had been overlooked for inclusion on the memorial. Axelson actually graduated from Chico State, but studied for a year at SDSU.
For different reasons, both men are noteworthy additions to the memorial. One flew an historic mission while the other died on a secret assignment that became the subject of a best-selling book and popular movie.
THE PILOT
Kenneth Lamberton (r) sits for a family photo with his brother,
Kelly, and his father, Kelly Sr.
Kenneth Lamberton came to San Diego State from Coronado where he and his five siblings had grown up and where his parents and grandparents also lived. He had been a star on the Coronado High School basketball team.
“He got the nickname Spider because he was all arms and legs while playing,” says Lamberton’s oldest son, also named Kenneth Lamberton.
“We kept all the articles about his basketball career in high school,” adds Lamberton’s youngest son, Bill, whose actual memory of his father is largely confined to those articles and family lore. “He was really good in sports and very good as a musician; He played trumpet, guitar, banjo and all those kinds of things."
At San Diego State, Lamberton played on the freshman basketball team and joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He was also a member of the Air Force R.O.T.C.
Kenneth Lamberton had the nickname Spider in his basketball
playing days at Coronado High School.
Lamberton’s youngest sibling, Mary Parker, remembers her brother as a serious student. With 16 years between them, there is really only one lasting image she holds of her brother as a college student.
"The only thing I remember is him being in the back bedroom sitting up with one of those bed pillow things that looks like the top part of a chair,” she says. “Studying is what I remember of him.”
Another sister, Rosemary Thiele, remembers attending her brother’s college graduation. “He took off his (commencement) robe and he was wearing a uniform underneath,” she says.
A PROMISING FUTURE
After graduating from San Diego State, Lamberton joined the Air Force, became a pilot and rapidly rose in the ranks. At age 35, he was one of the youngest pilots ever to achieve the rank of major.
Lamberton participated in a groundbreaking mission in February of 1966 on a flight from Travis Air Force Base in California to Naha Air Force Base in Japan. It was the first transoceanic flight of F-102 aircraft using aerial refueling.
Young Major Lamberton was generally assumed to have a promising future in the Air Force. He had nowhere to go but up.
Major Kenneth j. Lamberton sits for an Air Force photo.
Yet, it was not to be. On November 14, 1967, while preparing for an assignment in Vietnam, he died piloting a plane on a training mission outside Salina, Kansas.
Mary Parker remembers being at a friend’s house when a family member called to deliver the news her brother had been killed. “It was already on the news and they didn't want me to hear it that way,” she says.
She can’t exactly recall the last words she and her brother had exchanged. All she remembers is that she was a senior in high school and recovering from a car accident.
“He came to the hospital and stuck his head in the door and said he just wanted to see how I was doing,” she said. “And that was the last time that I had actually seen my brother. He was a good guy.”
Parker named her oldest son after him. She likes the idea that SDSU will include her brother on the War Memorial.
"I think it's wonderful,” she says, “and I think he would be extremely proud.”
THE SEAL
Matt Axelson was approaching his senior year at Chico State when he decided he needed a change. He and his brother, Jeff, had been studying in Switzerland where an instructor told them about an inspiring political science professor at San Diego State.
Cindy and Matt Axelson.
Being a political science major, Matt decided to join Jeff in San Diego and check out SDSU. “He could finish up his degree with a more solid scholastic program that State had to offer and then, being right by the water, he could train right there," Jeff remembers.
Matt had a longtime friend who had been a Navy SEAL, so he entertained notions of joining the Navy and becoming a SEAL himself. After a year at SDSU, he headed back to Chico to wrap up his degree. It was in that summer of 1999 that he met Cindy Oji.
Matt had friends in the apartment complex where Cindy lived. They would all hang out or go boating at Lake Oroville, but soon Cindy and Matt were dating away from the gang.
“Within the first two weeks I knew,” Cindy remembers. “We knew.”
She and Matt just kind of clicked. He was everything she could have hoped for.
“He was super caring and loving and accepting of everybody,” she says, “and he was smart."
“HE FELT FORTUNATE”
Cindy with Matt at his Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training
graduation.
Her last semester of college, Cindy found an internship in San Diego. It was during that time that Matt joined the Navy.
“He just felt very fortunate to have the life that he did and he felt like he needed to do his part,” she explains, “so that's why he wanted to go into the Navy to become a SEAL."
The September 11 attacks occurred while Matt was still in training. Cindy says the terrorists' actions only strengthened his resolve.
She stuck it out the many times he was away for schooling or more training, seeing him for days between assignments that would take him away for months. “He proposed and we got married two days after Christmas (in 2003) because that was the only time the Navy could guarantee that he would be anywhere,” she says.
It was tough, but Cindy knew Matt was committed to being a SEAL. She was proud of him.
Matt Axelson in field gear in Afghanistan.
Matt deployed to Afghanistan in March 2005 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. On June 28 that year, his SEAL team was assigned to capture a high-ranking Taliban leader from his base of operations in the mountains.
Matt Axelson, or “AXE” as he was known, died in a fire fight on that mission three days after his 29th birthday.
PORTRAYING THE BROTHERHOOD
Only one team member, Marcus Luttrell, survived. Luttrell wrote a book about the mission titled, “Lone Survivor” and a movie with the same title starring Mark Wahlberg was released in 2013.
Axe was played by actor Ben Foster in the movie. Both Cindy and Matt’s brother, Jeff, believe the film was well done.
“Marcus did a great job with the book and Foster and the other actors did a good job playing the guys,” says Jeff, “and the movie did a good job of portraying that brotherhood.”
“And on top of that, it was weird how well Foster played that part for never knowing my brother - the cadence of his speech and his mannerisms and stuff. There were a couple times in the movie where I laughed out loud because it was exactly how my brother would have said something."
Some of Matt Axelson's belongings are on diplay at the
housing unit bearing his name.
For his heroics, Matt was awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal among others. He has a housing unit named after him at a San Diego naval facility and Cindy and Jeff have started a foundation in his name.
But Cindy is happy to hear that Matt’s name will appear on SDSU’s War Memorial. “It’s amazing they’re doing that,” she says.
She won’t be able to attend the November 13 ceremony, but she hopes to visit San Diego soon from Northern California and stop by the monument to see his name etched in the polished granite. Cindy says she remembers San Diego fondly as the place early in their relationship where she got to spend the most time with Matt.
“He really was the love of my life,” she says. "He definitely was one of a kind.”
To find out more about the SDSU War Memorial, visit www.sdsualumni.org/warmemorial.