• Jan. 18, 1920 – July 31, 1942
• Knoxville, TN
• Engineering 1938-1941
• Scabbard and Blade
• 1st LT. – Army
• KIA while serving in the Philippines
  • Company E of the 14th Engineer Regiment (Philippines Scouts), Philippine Division
  • Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province
• Cabanatuan Memorial at the Manila American Cemetery in Manila, Philippines
  • Lynnhurst Cemetery in Knoxville, TN

Walter Estel Burnett Jr. (Jan. 18, 1920 – July 31, 1942) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee from 1938 to 1941, when he graduated with a degree in Engineering. He was also a member of the Scabbard and Blade Society as an Army ROTC student while at UT. He enlisted in the United States Army after graduation in 1941, months before the United States entered the war in December. He was trained as a 1st Lieutenant and sent to the Philippines to serve as an officer for Company E of the 14th Engineer Regiment of the Philippine Division, also known as the Philippine Scouts. The Philippine Scouts served as an American-Philippine unit, and the 14th Engineer Regiment was responsible for infrastructure construction, especially on the Bataan Peninsula, before the war.

When the Japanese invaded in December 1941, 1st Lt. Burnett was among those who fought a defensive pullback on the Bataan Peninsula while simultaneously constructing beach fortifications, cutting new roads, and keeping up military infrastructure that was damaged from Japanese aerial bombings. They continued their activities against the Japanese until the beginning of April 1942, when, surrounded by the Japanese, the officers chose to surrender themselves to allow the remaining scouts time to escape into the hills to continue the fight. 1st Lt. Burnett was most likely among these surrendering officers and was forced onto the Bataan Death March and internment at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province as a prisoner of war. He suffered the horrible conditions of the march and imprisonment at Cabanatuan. It is reported that he died in captivity on July 31, 1942, from an onset of Malaria and Dysentery most likely caused by these conditions. He is memorialized at the Cabanatuan Memorial at the Manila American Cemetery in Manila, Philippines. He is also remembered in Knoxville, Tennessee, at Lynnhurst Cemetery.  

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