By Shannon Lukens.
UPDATE on July 25, 2024. We are sad to report of the passing of Harmon “Buck” Buckland tonight. He was 91 years old.
Harmon Buckland celebrated his 91st birthday at The Veterans Center in Steamboat Springs Saturday. They call him, “Buck.” And the birthday party was a surprise.
“It is wonderful. It is a total, of course, surprise, because after you get up around 91 you never know when you’re going to get another one but you just keep hoping that they will keep coming.”
Buck served in the United States Air Force in the Korean War. He served in Vietnam. He worked for the National Security Agency for 35 years. And he was in Berlin when the wall came down in 1989.
Buck moved to Routt County back in 1997 and worked for many years at Ferrell Gas.
A book with memories and pictures was made for Buck. Everyone at the party signed it. One of the pictures is Buck with entertainer Bob Hope.
Buck’s 91st Birthday Party was held at The Veterans Center at 924 Lincoln Ave. in downtown Steamboat Springs.
Harmon “Buck” Buckland, Staff Sergeant, United States Air Force: Feb. 2, 1953 – Feb. 1, 1957
After finishing high school in Hinton, WV, Buck joined the Air Force and went to boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, TX. From there he went to Kessler Air Base, Buloxi, MS. for Radio Fundamentals School. He underwent months of intensive training to become a Radio lnterceptor Operator. This involved a fluent knowledge of Morse Code. Upon completion he received orders to Korea. He boarded a ship out of San Francisco, arriving in Yokohama, Japan in mid-winter. He spent two weeks living in a tent in a large military camp that served as a deployment center for troops going to and from Korea. Buck recalled that it was bitterly cold then, with the only heat being a small pot-bellied stove in each tent. His deployment orders came suddenly one night and in a matter of hours he was aboard a large transport plane. lt was only after he was in the air for several hours that he learned that instead of going to Korea he was en route to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.
There he was assigned to the 29th Radio Squadron Mobile as a radio operator, intercepting and recording coded Chinese messages that were forwarded for translation and use by military intelligence services. He was there until Dec. 1955 when he was reassigned to the 6972″d Support Squadron / USAF Security Service / National Security Agency at Arlington, VA. Buck worked as a ‘Traffic Analysis’, a military term that essentially monitored and interpreted intelligence communications gathered from an array of sources around the world. He was there until his discharge in 1957. He remained in the Air Force Reserve until 1961 and then joined the Navy Reserve until 1956, continuing to utilize his skills as a radio operator.
After his discharge from active duty, he put his operative skills to work at the National Security Agency for the next 35 years. His assignments there literally took him all over the world, including several trips to South Vietnam. ln 1965 he was working closely with US military intelligence sources at Tan Son Nhut Air Base / Saigon. lt was largely through Buck and CWO Heltzel’s careful and intuitive analysis of intelligence reports that the U S Marines were able to conduct and successfully carry out ‘Operation Starlite,’ an offensive that resulted in the partial destruction of the 1’t Viet Cong Regiment in a decisive battle near Chu Lai in August, 1965.
Buck also had the good fortune to be working in Berlin when, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall ‘came down’. Buck and his friends immediately went outside and greeted a couple who had just driven over from east Germany as they bravely ventured towards their new-found freedom. When Buck and his friends offered to toast their good fortune, this couple was initially fearful until, after a few moments, it dawned on them that they truly were ‘free’. Buck described it as one of the most profound and heart-warming moments of his life.
Military awards earned include: National Defense Service Medal/ Korean Service Medal / Good Conduct Medal/ United Nations Service Medal
The new Veterans Center of Northwest Colorado is going to be historically renovated and become a resource center for all veterans and their families and a community gathering place for Steamboat organizations. They ask that you like their Facebook page to find out what is happening and how you can help support the community and especially our military services members, both past and present.
Money is still being raised for the renovation of the building, with help from Yampa Valley Community Foundation. Donate to The Veterans Center