Title: Walter F. Choinski Jr. Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1899-1987

Creator:

• Choinski, Walter Frank, 1899-

Call Number: Mss 781; PH 3908; PH 3909; M97-082

Quantity: 1.7 cubic feet (4 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder) and 110 photographs (5 folders); plus additions of 0.1 cubic feet (1 folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

See the catalog entry for information on possible additional materials and shelf locations.

Abstract:

Papers of Walter F. Choinski Jr., a career soldier from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, chiefly consisting of a lengthy memoir concerning service during the 1930s with the Wisconsin National Guard and in Alaska during World War II, and diplomatic assignments in Korea and Poland and CIA intelligence work during the postwar era. Also included are several research documents produced while associated with the Military Assistance Institute including information on a tour of Vietnam in 1960. Subject files contain clippings and related personal and genealogical documents. The photographs document aspects of Choinski's career and paintings by his wife.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00781

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Walter Frank Choinski Jr., was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 8, 1899, the son of Walter Choinski Sr., and Katherine Kammerer Pietsch. Walter Choinski Sr., had been born in Posen, Germany (now Poznan, Poland) in 1870 and immigrated to America in 1873, while Choinski's mother had been born in Grafenberg, Germany in 1872.

The younger Choinski attended the Polish National Alliance College at Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, from August 1915 to June 1918, where he studied French, German, and Polish. He returned home in 1918 and by 1919 had begun attending Marquette University. After three semesters, he left to spend a winter as a forest ranger in Nevada. In September 1921 Choinski returned to Wisconsin and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin. By 1925 Choinski had again left school, this time to work as a grade school teacher in Nevada. In 1927 Choinski enlisted in the army. In 1929, while on maneuvers at Camp Douglas, Wisconsin, he married Marion Stenz, a teacher whom he had met in 1921.

In 1929 Choinski left the regular army to become adjutant of the Wisconsin National Guard and a commissioned officer of the 32nd Division. Until 1940 he served under Brigadier General Ralph Immell as adjutant and aide. During the 1930s Choinski was active in debates about the need for a new airport in Madison and he wrote a frequent column on the topic for the Wisconsin State Journal.

In 1940 Colonel Choinski was called to active duty with the 32nd Division and, after training in Louisiana, he served in the amphibious landings on Adak Island, Alaska; as assistant chief of staff for intelligence for the Alaska Defense Command; and as an artillery officer with the 209th Field Artillery Battalion in Europe. In the postwar era Choinski served as a liaison officer between the U.S. Army and the 25th Red Army in North Korea (1946-1949), as military attache to Poland (1951-1953), and later as intelligence advisor to the Royal Thai Armed Forces (1957-1958).

After his retirement in 1958, he became director of research for the Military Assistance Institute, a school in Arlington, Virginia, for military members being assigned overseas. In this capacity he wrote over 30 books. This work also gave him broad opportunities to travel and utilize his Latin, Greek, Polish, French, Russian, German, and Turkish language skills.

In 1971 the Choinskis moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, but they returned to Madison in June 1979. Marion Choinski died in 1986. In 1987 Choinski married Mildred B. Ockerman.

This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into 2 major parts. These materials have not been physically interfiled and researchers might need to consult more than one part to locate similar materials.

• Part 1 (Mss 781, PH 3908, PH 3909): Original Collection, 1899-1987
• Part 2 (M97-082): Additions, undated

Use Restrictions

The accession file contains no language concerning transfer of copyright.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Walter F. Choinski Jr., Madison, Wisconsin, 1967, 1989. Accession Number: M67-288, M89-187, M89-326, M97-082

Processing Information

Processed by David Picard and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1990.

Mss 781	Part 1 (Mss 781, PH 3908, PH 3909): Original Collection, 1899-1987 Physical Description: 1.6 cubic feet (4 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder) and 110 photographs (5 folders)  Scope and Content Note The Choinski papers, which were arranged by the Mr. Choinski himself, consist of a lengthy MEMOIR, SUBJECT FILE of clippings, other documents and PHOTOGRAPHS. Several parts of the chronologically arranged MEMOIR deserve special mention. The most extensive part of the memoir concerns Choinski's assignments in Alaska and in postwar Korea. This part of the memoir is based on Choinski's lengthy and detailed letters to his wife who did not accompany him, and transcriptions of many letters are included. Sections on his work in the Wisconsin National Guard are brief and somewhat anecdotal, although they include a complete file of his editorials advocating a new airport for Madison and an interesting internal report by Choinski to Immell on the little known printing of state scrip during the four-day New Deal bank holiday. (See Wisconsin Blue book, 1933, p. 294.) The Korean section details some interesting examples of the deterioration of U.S. Soviet wartime cooperation in the immediate postwar era, such as an official protest by the Soviets about Choinski for unwarranted confrontations with Soviet officials and regulations. Accounts of his assignment as military attache at the American Embassy in Poland and in establishing two CIA intelligence schools in Thailand in 1954 are less extensive but interesting. The section on the Military Assistance Institute contains only one of the many country studies which Choinski researched and wrote for officers assigned overseas. This section includes, however, a noteworthy file on his tour of Vietnam in 1960, an annotated Vietnam policy notebook, and his history of the institute prepared in 1968. Within the SUBJECT FILE is genealogical information on the Choinski family, his military 201 file, copies of personal income tax records, and a file of some miscellaneous writings including a history of the origin of Flag Day in the Stony Hill School House, Waubeka, Wisconsin, in 1885. Also of note is a file containing copies of medical records, a diary concerning his bout with bladder cancer during the 1960s, and prints from the chop blocks made for the Choinskis in Korea. The PHOTOGRAPHS include images of Choinski, his family, and photographs related to aspects of his career. Also included are reproductions of Marion Choinski's artwork.
	Series: Memoir
Box   1 Folder   1	Introduction
Box   1 Folder   2	Youth
Box   1 Folder   3-4	Civilian activities
	Military activities
Box   1 Folder   5	Preparing for war
Box   1 Folder   6	Aleutians and Alaska
Box   1 Folder   7	Soviets in Alaska
Box   1 Folder   8	“I Get a Command”
Box   1 Folder   9-11	North Korea
Oversize Folder   1	So-Book Northwest Youth Association flag Alternate Format: Image available online.
Box   2 Folder   1-5	South Korea
Box   2 Folder   6	Poland and Washington, D.C.
Box   2 Folder   7	Thailand and Pentagon duty
Box   3 Folder   1-2	Military Assistance Institute
Box   3 Folder   3-4	“I Go to Vietnam”
	Series: Subject File	⇧
Box   3 Folder   5	Freelancing, 1958-1971
Box   3 Folder   6	“In the eyes of the beholder”
Box   3 Folder   7	Choinski family in Poland
Box   3 Folder   8	Choinski family in Milwaukee
Box   3 Folder   9	Immediate family
Box   4 Folder   1	Education
Box   4 Folder   2	Travel
Box   4 Folder   3	Health
Box   4 Folder   4	Writings
Box   4 Folder   4A	Memorabilia
Box   4 Folder   5-7	Military service records
Box   4 Folder   8-9	Income tax records
PH 3908	Series: Photographs	⇧
Folder   1	Family and early life
Folder   2	Aleutians
Folder   3	Korea
Folder   4	Thailand
Folder   5	Choinski, later in life
PH 3909	Reproductions of Marion Choinski's artwork
M97-082	Part 2 (M97-082): Additions, undated Physical Description: 0.1 cubic feet (1 folder)  Scope and Content Note: Genealogical information about the Choinski family, clippings on the Vance and Pueblo affairs, an article written by Colonel Choinski about the U.S. Navy, and Colonel Choinski's military record.	⇧