Howard Kreuter

Howard Kreuter was born Howard George Kreuter on February 5, 1910, in Cincinnati, Ohio to George Louis Kreuter and Louise Burton.  He was nicknamed “Dutch.”

Kreuter attended Newport High School in Newport, Kentucky where he excelled in multiple sports, especially football.

Kreuter won three varsity letters each in baseball, football, and basketball and two in track at Kentucky in the early 1930’s.

As a freshman, he was awarded the Lamp and Cross Cup as the most outstanding freshman at the University of Kentucky campus.  He was a guard on the freshman basketball team that went undefeated in 1929-30.  He also became a member of Phi Kappa Tau, social fraternity, as a freshman.

Kreuter was elected vice-president of his junior class at UK in 1931-32.  That same year, Kreuter was playing backup forward to John DeMoisey until DeMoisey was injured.  Then Adolph Rupp spent two weeks getting “Dutch” Kreuter groomed for a regular position at forward.  At the end of those two weeks, Kreuter was playing basketball with the rest of the team as if he had never done anything else.

Kreuter was named the University of Kentucky football team captain for the 1933 season.  He was a regular end on the Wildcats’ team

He was a member of the 1932-33 basketball team that won the Southeastern Conference championship.

Following college, Kreuter played professional baseball for the Cincinnati and St. Louis baseball clubs and professional football for the New York Giants.

Giving up sports in 1939, Kreuter entered business at Dallas, hometown of his wife, whom he married in 1934. He enlisted in the Army on April 20, 1939.

In 1943, Sergeant Kreuter was a physical instructor at the Army Air Forces Advanced Flying School in  Moore Field, Texas, when he was appointed to Officer Candidate School in Miami Beach, Florida.  In August of 1943, Kreuter was commissioned a second lieutenant.

Kreuter served overseas with the Air Forces in Germany from July, 1946, until January, 1947.  In 1951, Captain Kreuter was assigned to the Tactical Air Command Headquarters at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to head the newly formed TAC.  The Tactical Air Command was organized to provide close Air Force co-ordination with land, naval and amphibious forces and to prepare other Air Force units for combat operations. It was one of three major commands in the Air Force.

By 1963, Kreuter had been promoted to Major.

Kreuter had resided in Fairfield, California for 15 years and retired from Travis AFB in 1965 as a lieutenant colonel with 23 years service. He was a former administrator of the La Mariposa and Suisun Valley convalescent hospitals and was an advisory member of the Solano County Probation Department and F.A.S.T. Lions Club member.

Kreuter passed away in April of 1978 at the age of 68.