Ralph Maurice Buffington, Jr. – Second Lieutenant, United States Army

Ralph Maurice Buffington

Arlington, Virginia
Born September 16, 1926
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army
Service Number O-59130
Died of Wounds
Died August 12, 1950 in Korea

United States Military Academy, Class of 1949, Second Lieutenant Buffington was a member of the 14th Engineer Combat Battalion, U.S. Army.

He was seriously wounded by the enemy in Korea on August 12, 1950 and died of those wounds later that day.

Second Lieutenant Buffington was awarded the Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

NOTE: His father, Ralph Maurice Buffington, Major, United States Army, is buried in an adjacent site in Arlington National Cemetery.

MRS. B. D. BUFFINGTON BRIDE OF J. R. WHIPPLE
October 18, 1953

The marriage of Mrs. Barbara Duquette Buffington, widow of Lieutenant Ralph Buffington, U.S.A., and daughter of Mrs. Marjorie Baker Duquette of Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, and Frederick M. Duquette of Brooklyn, Wisconsin, to James Rutledge Whipple, son of Professor Leon Rutledge Whipple of New York and the late Mrs. Margaret Hubbard Whipple, took place yesterday afternoon in the chapel of the Litte Church Around the Corner.

The Rev. Dr. Randolph Ray performed the ceremony, which was followed by a reception in the home of the bride’s aunt, Mrs. Edward W. DeWilton of 430 East Firty-seventh Street, with whom the bride made her home.

Mrs. Whipple attended Rollins College and was graduated from the Katharine Gibbs School in New York.  Her first husband, a 1949 graduate of West Point, was killed in August 1950 in Korea.

The bridegroom, who served with the Army in the Pacific theater during World War II, is an alumnus of Swarthmore College.  He is a technical editor for Fawcett Publications.

Michael Robert Patterson

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