Brock L. Bucklin
Corporal, United States Army
August 18, 1977 – May 31, 2006
Age – 28
Grand Rapids, MI
Operation Iraqi Freedom
1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, CO
Died of a non-combat related cause while serving in Balad, Iraq.
Army Cpl. Brock Bucklin had been killed in an equipment accident in Iraq. The accident occurred when soldiers were lifting equipment and a chain hoist broke, striking Bucklin in the neck and fatally injuring him. Bucklin joined the Army in August 2004, about a year after his twin brother, Brad, did. , who graduated from Forest Hills Central High School in 1997, thrived in the Army. He had worked at different jobs and never figured out what he wanted to do. The Army really seemed to work for him. He was sent to Iraq in December 2005 and often was assigned to help set up and maintain communications. Dawn Bucklin said her sons had told her not to worry about them as long as the military didn’t show up at her door. Oh my gosh, the military is at the door,” she recalled telling her son on the phone Wednesday when she saw the two officers approach.Brad Bucklin plans to escort his brother’s remains home from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. “He and Brock made a promise if anything ever happened, they would carry their brother off the plane,” Dawn Bucklin said. “He did not want to break that promise.” One of his senior officers commented “Following in his father’s and brother’s footsteps, CPL Bucklin volunteered for the Army and was proudly serving in Iraq so that others, Americans and Iraqis, could have life, liberty, and happiness and I know that he believed in what he was doing.
Let there be no doubt, CPL Bucklin was making a difference. The cornerstone of his unit, he was a consummate soldier: a fiercely driven warrior who lived the Army values of duty, loyalty, and honor. He loved his family, he loved his job, and he loved having fun. He was an American Soldier.
I first met CPL Bucklin after taking command of headquarters company 1-68 Armor. Brock was assigned as the mortar platoon sergeant’s driver. Displaying the natural overachiever I grew to love, I quickly found out that he had committed the operator’s manual of his heavy cargo truck to memory. Now you need to understand that this operators manual is like and inch and a half thick. Unlike any other driver in the company, he could quote the document from memory and he took pleasure in quizzing me with difficult questions about obscure but important facts such as tire pressure and horsepower. My point is that Brock was a professional and knew that someday, sometime, those details would be important.
His platoon was constantly supporting the rest of the battalion during live fire exercises. I loved to jump in the back of his armored mortar carrier and “drop rounds” as we say in the infantry. Despite my inexperience and the added pressure of having his commander hanging around, CPL Bucklin was a patient teacher and I loved to be in his track when the tubes were firing. With a twinkle in his eye and a huge smile on his face, he would loudly, and somewhat sarcastically, ask me if the rounds were too heavy, or urge me to hurry up because the other crews were firing at a faster rate and my unpracticed efforts were causing his gun to fall behind…
I have a lot of favorite memories of CPL Bucklin:
His volunteering on short notice to drive me out to the gunnery range to visit training in the middle of the night in the freezing temperatures and snow of the Colorado winter….
The only soldier of my 225 man company to take my rope climbing challenge… and then, to my great dismay, beating me soundly to the cheers of his fellow soldiers.
Arriving to work early and staying late so he could take care of our company mascot, a huge Great Dane named Buddy.
And many others…
But I will always remember him as a warrior, an infantryman who loved his family, his son Jacob, his unit, and the Army.
He died defending his country and I am extremely proud to have known and served with him in the profession of arms. I will always call you a brother, as do the rest of the Silver Lions. Corporal Bucklin, you have now joined an elite few that lead the way on our path in combat. You have joined the few that we will never forget. We will always raise a glass to your honor and sacrifice.
There’s a famous epitaph found on many veterans memorials and monuments throughout the world. It says simply:
“When they ask of us, tell them that for their tomorrow, we gave our today.”
Brock, you gave all. You gave your today.”