Rudolph W. Riefkohl
| Rudolph William Riefkohl | |
|---|---|
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Colonel Rudolph William Riefkohl
|
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| Born | 1885 Maunabo, Puerto Rico |
| Died | November 13, 1950 Surfside, Florida |
| Buried at | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Army
|
| Years of service | 1911–1945 |
| Rank |
 Colonel |
| Battles/wars |
World War I *Meuse-Argonne Offensive World War II |
Colonel Rudolph William Riefkohl (1885 – November 13, 1950), was an officer in the United States Army, who played an instrumental role in helping the people of Poland overcome the 1919 typhus epidemic.
Riefkohl (birth name: Rudolph William Riefkohl Jaimieson) was born and raised in the town of Maunabo, Puerto Rico. He was the oldest of five siblings born to Luis Riefkohl y Sandoz and Julia Jaimieson. His younger brother was Frederick Lois Riefkohl, the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and to be awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in World War I, who retired from the Navy with the rank of Rear Admiral His other siblings were Helen, Emily and Louise Riefkohl.
In the spring of 1898, as a young 14-year-old, Riefkohl was involved in a curious encounter with an American spy on the eve of the Spanish–American War. As recounted by the spy, Edwin Emerson, Jr. in Century magazine in September 1898, Emerson, who was pretending to be a German journalist, had been given Riefkohl's father's name by the German consul in St. Thomas. Upon his arrival in the town of Maunabo he met young Rudolph and asked the lad in German if he had a map of Puerto Rico (Emerson had lost his). Riefkohl answered that he did, but it was decidedly too big for Emerson's use. Riefkohl returned home, not knowing that Emerson was a spy, and quickly drew another map with a depiction of the major ports and harbors of Puerto Rico. It is believed that Emerson gave Riefkohl's map to another spy, Lieutenant Henry Howard Whitney, who posed as a British crew member in the furnace-room of the merchant ship, and that Whitney gave the map to General Nelson A. Miles, thereby influencing the general's decision as to the disembarkation points for the invasion of Puerto Rico. A Photostat copy of Riefkohl's map was published in the Century article. After the war Riefkohl moved to the United States and concluded his secondary education in Concord, Massachusetts, serving as a cadet in the Sixth Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers, the same regiment that saw service in the southern areas of Puerto Rico in 1898 during the Puerto Rico Campaign. In 1910, Riefkohl earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT).
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