[25Kingman49]

Supplemental to Rolland's post #10, adding a face to this B-18 crew, and offers a new crash date (adding to the confusion) of 18 March 1942, captured/POW 19 March 1942.

GAYLORD ALEXANDER BUCHANAN, JR.

Buck received a medical discharge upon graduation, having lost his right foot in a subchaser accident the latter part of Second Class Year. He joined the Sperry Gyroscope Company and was sent to the South Pacific in October, 1941, as Sperry Representative to the Air Corps, R.A.F., R.A.A.F., R.N.Z.A.F., and Dutch Air Force. Buck was in Singapore when WW II started. Two days before Singapore surrendered, he flew to Java. As the Japanese swarmed into Bandoeng, Buck took off in a beat-up B-18 bomber for Australia. The plane crash- landed on the north coast of Java and all were taken prisoner the following day, March 19, 1942.

Buck spent over three and a half years in various P.O.W. camps with survivors from HOUSTON, PERCH, LANGLEY, POPE and several hundred Texas National Guardsmen. During this period, Buck constructed a small short-wave receiver in his artificial leg and was able to receive news broadcasts from around the world. Buck later received the Navy Bronze Star and citations from the British and Dutch Governments. After a post-war rehabilitation in Calcutta, he returned to New York and his work with Sperry. On December 23, 1945, Buck married Esther Clark Montgomery, M.D.

Buck resigned as Sales Representative to the Air Force at Sperry in March, 1949, and entered medical school at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He received his M.D. in 1954. A rotating internship was followed by five years in General Practice. In March, 1960, he returned to the University of Utah for a residency in Anesthesiology, followed by a partnership in a group practicing at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. Certification followed as a Fellow in the American College and as a Diplomate of the American Boards. While in active practice, Buck served as President of the Central Utah Medical Society, President of the Utah Society of Anesthesiologists, Chairman of the Holy Cross Hospital Anesthesiology Department and Clinical Instructor, University of Utah College of Medicine.

Following a divorce in 1973, Buck married LCDR Leanna Aretas Ruth, N.C., USN (Ret) on May 31, 1974. This culminated a romance that had started in high-school and had been interrupted by WWII. Plans for retirement came to fruition in December, 1977. Since then, Buck and Aretas have been enjoying the GOLDEN YEARS at 9329 South Sneddon Drive, Sandy, Utah 84070. Buck is still active in amateur radio as W7UG, and both enjoy frequent local desert trips and overseas jaunts.

Source: 2000, usna.com; SIXTIETH GRADUATION ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS OF 1940 Class Individual Biographies