Corporal William Heister "Buddy" Dukeman Jr. (3 September 1921-5 October 1944) was a US Army paratrooper who served in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, US 506th Infantry Regiment during World War II.
Biography[]
William Dukeman Jr. was born in Strasberg, Colorado on 3 September 1921, and he worked in Albuquerque, New Mexico during the Great Depression. Dukeman and Everett Gray decided to join the US Army airborne infantry when World War II broke out, and he befriended John W. Martin, Frank Perconte, and Albert Blithe while training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia. Dukeman was struck in the chin by German fire during D-Day, and he later fought at the Battle of Carentan and Operation Market Garden. On 5 October 1944, he was killed by a German rifle grenade while patrolling during a skirmish with Wehrmacht troops in the Netherlands.