JD Lock

Having passed away on 31 July 2024, CPT Paul Bucha was brought 'home' to his alma mater, the United States Miliary Academy at West Point, to be laid to rest on 16 January 2025.

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The Cadet Chapel was filled with family, friends, fellow Medal of Honor recipients and associates, while close members of his family and a fellow comrade in arms offered their insightful ... and humorous ... personal eulogies of not just a quintessential warrior but, perhaps even more importantly, an exceptionally decent and gifted individual.  

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Aside from the stories from his wife, Cynthia (Chintz) and children, ​I felt one of the most relevant vignettes was offered by Bud's battle buddy, Dave Dillard, his radio-telephone operator (RTO) during their battle in Vietnam, 16 - 19 March 1968, who noted that when he told people that he’d served with a Medal of Honor recipient in the battle, he’d be asked “What award did you get?”  
 

His response – “I got to live.”  

No more poignant, insightful nor telling response has ever been said.

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As an aside, I took the opportunity to speak with the RTO paratrooper for a few minutes.  One thing I'd become curious about was the fact that Paul’s classmates and other associates called him “Buddy” while he had me and a few other classmates I work with on a project Bud assisted with call him “Bud” … which was the only time I heard him referenced as 'Bud' … until Paul's RTO spoke.

When I asked him, he noted that all of the men in ‘D Company’ called him “Bud.”
 

A small nuance, but I like to think Bud considered our small team of fellow grads ‘company members.’
 

To quote Casablanca, “It’s the romantic in me”😊

Later, as the final graveside service at the cemetery was advancing to its conclusion, snow began to fall ... a most fitting ending for a man who loved to ski.