Ralph Burton Praeger was born on April 7, 1914, in Claflin, Barton County, Kansas. He was the son of Herman A. Praeger and Gertrude E. Grizzell Praeger. He was married to Verda Evelyn Ames. He attended Claflin schools, graduating from Claflin High School in 1932. After graduation, he completed one year of postgraduate study at Claflin High and another at Sterling College. In 1934, he received a Congressional appointment from Clifford R. Hope of Kansas to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he entered as a cadet and played football as a substitute on the First Team. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1938 and began his career with a brief assignment in the Air Corps at Randolph Field, Texas. In July 1939, he was transferred to the 26th Cavalry (Philippine Scouts) at Fort Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands, where, at the outbreak of war, he was serving as Commander of Troop C.

When the Japanese broke through at Lingayen on December 22, 1941, Praeger’s Troop C was cut off in North Luzon. He immediately began guerrilla operations against the invaders, striking first at the Japanese airfield in Tuguegarao, Cagayan, on January 12–13, 1942. Leading fewer than 100 men against 2,000 enemy troops, he captured the airfield and killed about 200 Japanese soldiers, earning the Distinguished Service Cross from General MacArthur. Praeger continued to disrupt Japanese garrisons and communications throughout northeastern Luzon, maintaining free local governments in Cagayan and Apayao well into 1943, long after the rest of Luzon had fallen.

In October 1942, Major Ralph successfully established radio contact with the U.S. War Department, creating the only line of communication between Luzon and the United States until his capture on August 30, 1943. Held as a criminal prisoner by the Japanese, he endured a year of imprisonment and starvation before being court-martialed and sentenced to death in August 1944. He is believed to have been executed in Manila on December 31, 1944.

Maj Praeger's name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines. He also has a cenotaph in the Montgomery Cemetery, Barton County, Kansas, USA

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, alumni.westpointaog.org