Cpl. William Heister Dukeman Jr. was born on Sept 3, 1921 to parents William H Dukeman Sr. and Gertrude A. Nordloh Dukeman, in the plains town of Keenesburg (now Strasburg), Colorado, which is just east of Denver, Colorado. He was the youngest of five siblings, his sister Mildred, and brothers Henry, Charles, and Cleese.

In 1929, the Dukeman family moved a few miles north to the town of Keenesburg, Colorado. William Jr. went to high school in that area, graduating in 1939.

William picked up a nickname sometime in his childhood, going by the name of “Buddy” or “Bud” often, possibly to help differentiate him from his father William Sr.

After graduating high school, Buddy and a close childhood friend and fellow future E/506th paratrooper, Everett J. Gray (KIA in Normandy) decided to travel in search of adventure and new work. It is said that Dukeman and his buddies enlisted in San Francisco, CA, on August 22, 1942, but there is conflicting information on the location of his enlistment. Dukeman’s draft registration card does note the registrar's office in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which implies he spent time in his late teens/early 20’s in Wyoming. This does not indicate his actual enlistment location however.

With the US joining WWII in late 1941, the boys were looking for stable work and better pay. Dukeman and Gray soon decided to join up in the US Army, eventually volunteering for the Paratroops, thereby earning an extra $50 more per month in the form of “Jump Pay,” or “blood money” as former E/506th C.O. Maj. Dick Winters once described it as.

Dukeman was assigned to Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and found himself in basic training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. He is certainly considered an “original Toccoa Man” in the 506th, a distinguishing factor that the men used to refer to the original company of men at the unit's formation in 1942, at Camp Toccoa.

It is here under the hot southeastern sun that Dukeman became close with other original Toccoa Men, Frank Perconte, Albert Blithe, John Martin, Wild Bill Guarnere and of course home friend Everett Grey, to name just a few. They trained under company commander Herbert Sobel and forged a bond that, while now legendary in our eyes, was common amongst many combat units of the time. They later trained at Camp Mackall before shipping out to Aldbourne, England for further preparation of the invasion of France.

Dukeman made it through the Normandy campaign and jumped into the Netherlands on September 17th, 1944 as a corporal, entering combat as part of Operation Market Garden. He survived the initial objectives of the operation, joining the company on “The Island,” in early October 1944. The Island is a 5-kilometer wide tract of land that sits south of the Lower Rhine and north of the Waal River. Arnhem and Nijmegen were the eastern perimeter of the objective area, the western edge being Opheudsen and Dodewaard. The Germans held the terrain north of the Lower Rhine and also west of Opheusden.

After a small skirmish with a German patrol in the early hours of October 5th, 1st platoon of Easy Company moved out toward Opheusden along the NW portion of their front line to make sure it held. Cpl. Dukeman was part of the initial scouting squad in 1st Platoon on this patrol. After neutralizing a german machine gun crew, the scouting patrol began to receive small arms fire. While waiting for the remainder of the platoon to move up, Cpl. Dukeman was hit in the back by a rifle grenade, fired by a team of 3 Germans hiding in a culvert to the patrol’s flank. The scouting patrol from 1st Platoon quickly neutralized the 3 Germans, having lost Dukeman as KIA.

Dukeman, having celebrated his 23rd birthday just two weeks prior, was standing when he was hit, shouting at the patrol to spread out. He fell trying to prevent casualties amongst his squad. An original Toccoa man, his loss resonated throughout the company. Cpl. Dukeman is referenced and remembered in a handful of Easy Co. veteran memoirs, including those of Maj. Richard Winters, David Kenyon Webster, Donald Malarkey, Babe Heffron and Bill Guarnere, Darrell “Shifty” Powers, and of course is featured in Steve Ambrose’s "Band of Brothers." In his memoir “Beyond Band of Brothers,” Maj. Winters wrote of Dukeman: “…In the ensuing exchange, we lost Corporal William H. Dukeman, a man we all respected. 'Duke' was a Toccoa man who was beloved by everyone in the company” (Winters & Kingseed, 139).

He is buried at the Netherlands American cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, Plot G, Row 2, Grave 11.

We Will Remember Him

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WW2 fallen here on Fold3. Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Sources:

Twitter: @EasyCompany506t - ++https://twitter.com/EasyCompany506t++

++https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/100854021/person/350004996655/gallery++

++https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/102169881:6224?indiv=try&o_vc=Record%3aOtherRecord&rhSource=2238++

++https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=60541&h=3926615&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=4283++

++https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56305623/william-heister-dukeman++

++http://www.bensavelkoul.nl/Buddy_Dukeman.htm++

++http://www.band-of-brothers.nl/artikel/vet_abf_Dukeman.htm++

++https://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/506/506.html++

++http://old.506infantry.org/hiswwii/his2ndbnwwiiarticle10.html++

http://www.bensavelkoul.nl/Buddy_Dukeman.htm

https://militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=179729

"Beyond Brand of Brothers, The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters," Winters and Kingseed, 2006

William H Dukeman, Jr