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Bob Buckey
| Col. Bob Buckey (deceased) Colonel Bob Buckey received his wings in 1960 and never looked back. He was at the top of his Advanced Interceptor training class, which earned him the opportunity to be a fighter pilot. He flew combat air control off the coast of Havana, Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and was sent to Korea in 1969 in response to the Pueblo Crisis to fly the F-4 Phantom, which he considered his favorite. From Korea he became commander of a detachment in Taiwan, but he continued to volunteer to go to Vietnam. In September of 1972, he back-doored his way into combat, getting assigned to Udorn, Thailand. The fighters he flew there were armed with 500-pound bombs. As the war wound down, the restrictions on the pilots increased. The colonel was part of the mission to bomb Hanoi, and the fighters' job was to protect the B52 bombers. That mission lasted 11 days and had many casualties. Buckey completed his combat tour with 142 missions in Southeast Asia. He was assigned to Eglin AFB in Florida as Operations Officer of a tactical fighter squadron, then chief of standardization and evaluation, and chief of wing weapons and tactics. While at Eglin, he was responsible for the development and adoption of integrated combat turn procedures and checklists currently used by all present-day fighters. His next tour of duty was the Pentagon. He was chief of safety, security and inspections for the Air National Guard and was responsible for the operations and training of all Air National Guard fighters, recce, tanker and airlift forces. He was promoted to colonel while at the Pentagon. From the Pentagon, Buckey travelled to Naples, Italy, as chief of evaluations for the NATO southern region working with Italian, Turkish and U.S. fighter units. His final assignment in his Air Force career was with the U.S. Central Command at McDill AFB, and during that tour, he spent much of his time in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. He retired in November of 1989. He died May 20th 2020 aged 82. |
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Reunion Over Hanoi by Philip West. Col. Ken Cordier and Col. Bob Buckey were classmates in high school and college in Akron, Ohio. After college, they both became USAF fighter pilots, and although the two school chums never served together, their careers took separate yet parallel paths - until December 1966. On 2nd December 1966, then Cap. Ken Cordier and his back-seat pilot 1st Lt Mike Lane, were flying with the 559th TFS out of Cam Ranh Bay when they were shot down and captured 85 miles NW of Hanoi. They were to languish in North Vietnamese prisons for the next six years, first listed as MIA, then years later as POWs. Linebacker II was the code-name of the bombing offensive designed to force the North Vietnamese to agree to a ceasefire and peace accord. It was during the Linebacker II bombing campaign of December 1972 that then Maj. Bob Buckey and his back-seater, Capt Dan Tibbets, flew over Hanoi with the 555 TFS out of Udorn, Thailand. Their mission was to provide MIG-CAP for the B-52 bombers which were delivering punishing blows to the communist regimes capital city. On the ground, Ken was unaware that his old friend was a part of that campaign which would result in gaining his and the other POWs freedom after enduring long years of torture and deprivation. Bob, on the other hand, had known for years that Ken was a POW. So, every time he flew Downtown, Bob thought about Ken down there locked up in the infamous Hanoi Hilton and wondered when they would meet again. The bombing campaign had the desired effect and the North Vietnamese signed the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. Shortly thereafter, Operation Homecoming brought the POWs home to family, friends and freedom. Six months after his release, at a class reunion in Akron, Ken and Bob met and had a great time comparing war stories and resuming their old friendship. The image shows Maj. Bob Buckey as he pulls his F-4E Phantom II away from the Hanoi Hilton. |
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