Lanier Dunn Buford – Colonel, United States Army

From a contamporary press report:

Lanier Dunn Buford, 85, an Alexandria resident who was a retired Army colonel and a decorated combat veteran of World War II, died October 23, 2001, at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital. He had pneumonia.

Colonel Buford, who was born in Richmond, was a 1938 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He was commissioned in the Army horse cavalry about 1940. During World War II, he was a tank battalion commander in the Third Army, commanded by General George S. Patton Jr.

As a military attache, he served as an Army observer with French forces in Indochina at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. He also saw duty as an assistant attache in France and as military attache in Tunisia before finishing his active-duty career in Alexandria in 1968 with the Army Materiel Command.

His Army decorations included the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and the master parachutist badge.

Colonel Buford was a member of the Army & Navy Club and the U.S. Horse Cavalry Association.

His wife of 49 years, Patricia O'Brien Buford, died in 1991.

Survivors include two sons, Lanier Jr., of Front Royal, Va., and Patrick O'Brien Buford of Woodbridge; and two brothers, Algernon Sidney Buford III of Lexington, Va., and Robert Strother Buford of Richmond.


BUFORD, LANIER DUNN

On Tuesday, October 23, 2001 at Fair Oak Hospital, LANIER DUNN BUFORD. Husband of the late Patricia O'Brien Buford; father of Patrick O'Brien Buford and Lanier Dunn Buford, Jr.; brother of Algernon Sidney Buford, III and Robert Strother Buford. Graveside services will be held on Tuesday, November 20, 3 p.m. at Arlington National Cemetery with Full Military Honors. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Boy Scouts of America, Robert E. Lee Council, P.O. Box 6809, Richmond, VA 23230.

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