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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
Benton’s Sergeant Brian L. Buker Lest we forget
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by James Nalley
n 1961, in anticipation of the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam, President John F. Kennedy began activating Special Forces units, including the 5th Special Forces Group (SFG). The 5th SFG was first deployed as a battle advisory group for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. However, after the war was in full swing, it became a mainstay battle force that used both unconventional and conventional warfare. By the end of its 10-year service in the Vietnam War, a total of 18 Special Forces soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, including one man from Benton. Brian L. Buker was born on Novem-
ber 3, 1949, in the town of Benton. The youngest of four sons of Opal Buker Clark, he eventually graduated from Lawrence High School in Fairfield in 1967. According to a September 2010
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article in the Portland Press Herald, one of Buker’s high school classmates, Harry Fitzpatrick stated, “He was a regular 1967 version of a teenager… He was more inclined to go off to war; he did talk about joining the Army and serving the nation that way.” In 1968, as expected, Buker enlisted in the U.S. Army in Bangor, and earned his way into the 5th SFG. It is important to note that, by the late 1960s, the 5th SFG had become unique for its heavy use of watercraft, particularly Hurricane Aircat airboats. In 1967, the group launched a campaign against Viet Cong forces over a wide area of the Mekong Delta, a (cont. on page 52)
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