Obituaries

Ralph WhiteberghAir Force Intelligence Officer

Ralph Whitebergh, 86, a former U.S. Air Force chief warrant officer, died of vascular dementia May 20 at Sunrise of Reston, where he lived.

Mr. Whitebergh organized the service's Human Intelligence Reserve Program, which eventually enrolled 1,000 to 1,500 reservists.

After he retired from the Air Force in 1967, he worked 25 years as a civilian in the same job at Fort Belvoir. He retired a second time in 1992.

He was a native of Cologne, Germany, and his family was separated when they fled the Nazis. His father, an international lawyer, and younger brother were arrested in 1942 and died at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Mr. Whitebergh, his mother and younger sister escaped to the coast of Belgium, where a British troop ship took them to England.

Mr. Whitebergh was so impressed by the British intelligence agents who interrogated him upon arrival that he decided to work in military intelligence, he later told friends. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war ended, he became a U.S. citizen and brought his mother and sister to the United States with him.

He switched from the Army to the Air Force and continued to work in intelligence until his retirement. He was a member of the Fort Belvoir Jewish congregation since 1959.

His wife of 43 years, Winifred Owens, died in 1999.

He leaves no immediate survivors.

-- Patricia Sullivan