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.
