page_title: Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. / Military career / World War II / Death
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: バクナー中将慰霊碑English: Memorial monument of Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner on his KIA place in Okinawa.
context_page_description: Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. was a lieutenant general in the United States Army during World War II. He served in the Pacific Theater of Operations and commanded the defenses of Alaska early in the war. Following that assignment, he was promoted to command the Tenth Army, which conducted the amphibious assault on the Japanese island of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. He was killed during the closing days of the Battle of Okinawa by enemy artillery fire, making him the highest-ranking United States military officer lost to enemy fire during World War II. He would remain the highest ranking military member to be killed by a foreign armed action until the death of Lieutenant General Timothy Maude during the September 11 attacks.
  Buckner, Lesley J. McNair, Frank Maxwell Andrews, and Millard Harmon, all lieutenant generals at the time of their deaths, were the highest-ranking Americans to be killed in World War II. Buckner and McNair were posthumously promoted to the rank of four-star general on July 19, 1954, by a Special Act of Congress.
context_section_description: On June 18, Buckner arrived in his command jeep which was flying its standard 3-star flag to visit a forward observation post on a ridge approximately 300 yards behind the front lines, as Marine infantry advanced on the Japanese-held Ibaru Ridge. Visits from the general were not always welcome as his presence frequently drew enemy fire, usually as he was departing. Buckner had arrived with his standard three stars showing on the front of his steel helmet and a nearby Marine outpost sent a signal to Buckner's position stating that they could clearly see the general's three stars on his helmet. Told of this, Buckner replaced his own helmet with an unmarked one.
  As Buckner stood at the outpost, a small flat-trajectory Japanese artillery shell of unknown caliber (estimated 47mm) struck a coral rock outcropping near him, and fragments pierced his chest. Buckner was carried by stretcher to a nearby aid station, where he died on the operating table. He was succeeded in command by Marine General Roy Geiger. Total American deaths during the battle of Okinawa were 12,513.
  Buckner was interred in the family plot at Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.
caption: Buckner's memorial monument on the hill where he died.
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