A Guardia patrol under Second Lieutenant Laurin T. Covington, GN, was ambushed as it crossed a small stream.
Four men were killed before Covington was able to break contact. Meanwhile, a relief column, commanded by First Lieutenant Laurence C. Brunton, had come to Covington’s assistance. Once the two patrols had met, all seemed safe; but the enemy had moved cross-country to establish still another ambush along the road. Covington, Brunton, and Finis L. Whitehead, an officer in the Guardia’s Medical Corps, were killed when the trap was sprung; and their combined patrols were routed. In that day’s fighting, ten Guardia were killed.
WASHINGTON, April 22, 1932 – Lieutenant Lawrence C. Brunton, one of the three Americans slain yesterday in an encounter with Nicaraguan irregulars, was a graduate of the Naval Academy in the Class of 1930. He has been on duty in Nicaragua less than a month.
Lieutenant Laurin T. Covington had been in the field against the Nicaraguan insurgents since last May and Lieutenant Finis H. Whitehead since January 1931.
BODIES SENT FROM NICARAGUA
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – November 24, 1933 – The bodies of James F. Dickey, a Quartermaster Clerk of the United States Marine Corps, who was killed in the earthquake in March 1931, and of Lieutenant Lawrence C. Brinton, Lieutenant Laurin T. Covington and Finis H. Whitehear, Pharmacist Mage, U.S.N., killed on Action April 21, 1932, are being shipped to Balboa,Canal Zone, to be sent to the United States.
BRUNTON, LAWRENCE COLLINS
- 1LT MARINE CORPS
- DATE OF DEATH: 04/21/1932
- BURIED AT: SECTION 7 SITE 10127
- ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
BRUNTON, ALICE M
- DATE OF BIRTH: 05/01/1903
- DATE OF DEATH: 11/21/1990
- BURIED AT: SECTION 7 SITE 10127
- ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
- W/O LC BRUNTON, 1LT, USMC
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard