dismissed from the army in 1947 for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. His wife's health deteriorated, and she died of cancer in 1956. His daughter Dorothy stabbed her husband to death in 1952. She was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court-martial, but was freed by the Supreme Court in 1957. Education and early life Walter Krueger was born on 26 January 1881 in Flatow, West Prussia, then part of the German Empire, now part of Poland. He was the son of Julius Krüger, a Prussian landowner who had served as an officer in the Franco-Prussian War, and his wife, Anna, formerly Hasse. Following Julius's death, Anna and her three children emigrated to the United States to be near her uncle in St. Louis, Missouri. Walter was then eight years old. In St. Louis, Anna married Emil Carl Schmidt, a Lutheran minister. The family subsequently settled in Madison, Indiana. Krueger was tutored by his stepfather, educated in the public schools of Madison, and completed high school at Madison's Upper Seminary. As a teenager, he wanted to become a naval officer, but when his mother objected he decided to become a blacksmith instead. After graduating from high school, Krueger enrolled at the Cincinnati Technical High School, where he learned blacksmithing and completed science and mathematics courses in preparation for college studies in engineering. Early military service On 17 June 1898, Krueger enlisted for service in the Spanish–American War with the 2nd United States Volunteer Infantry. He reached Santiago de Cuba a few weeks after the Battle of San Juan Hill, and spent eight months there on occupation duties, rising to the rank of sergeant. Mustered out of the volunteers in February 1899, he returned home to Ohio, planning to become a civil engineer. However, many of his comrades were re-enlisting for service in the Philippine–American War and in June 1899 Krueger re-enlisted as a private in M Company of the 12th Infantry. Soon he was on his way to fight Emilio Aguinaldo's Insurrectos as part of Major General Arthur MacArthur, Jr.'s 2nd Division of the Eighth Army Corps. He took part in the advance from Angeles to Tarlac, Aguinaldo's capital. But Aguinaldo had fled, and the 12th Infantry pursued him vainly all the way through Luzon's central plain to Dagupan. While serving in an infantry unit in the Philippines, he was promoted to sergeant. On 1 July 1901, he