1st Lt. Barry "Buck" Dean Kingman
19 May 1944 - 29 Dec 1968
(Died in the service of his country: Binh Long, South Vietnam)
PALY CLASS OF '62 - FOREVER REMEMBERED
Awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal, Purple Heart and Air Medal with 19 Oak Leaf Clusters: the last medal was for meritorious flight time over enemy territory
Buck is honored on Panel 35W, Row 5 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington, DC.
If you wish to add a Remembrance of Buck on the Wall of Remembrance, click below
http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/28082/BARRY-D-KINGMAN
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...." Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.
David Banker (1962)
U S Army officer.
Pamela Kiraly (West) (1961)
REMEMBERING BUCK - Bruce Baum "I've been mulling over writing something about Buck Kingman ever since I came across his picture in the Veterans Day Tribute. At first I didn't recognize him, since when I last saw him during the Summer of 1963 he was bulked up from playing football at Cal. We were both summer camp counselors at a camp owned by Craig Medlin's father, a former Canadian Air Force officer: Camp Laurel Glen in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was pretty much an idyllic 8 weeks for me; I had a ball. I think all the other counselors, including Buck, did too. I got to know him pretty well, much better than him being a year behind me in high school. He had a dynamic personality. I had previously dated his older sister Janie briefly, but never really got to know Buck until that summer. We all hooked up with girl counselors or staff, and Buck was no exception. I can't recall at this late date whether he sat around late at night and drank beer with the rest of us. I don't remember when and how I learned he had been killed in Vietnam, but I do recall learning how devestated his family was over the whole situation. To my chagrin I never made a move to contact them to express my regrets over their terrible loss. I think at the time I was dealing with too many other such losses to adequately cope with yet another. In closing it is only on Memorial Day or Veterans Day that I allow myself to think of those friends and comrads who gave their all in Vietnam. It is otherwise too painful and I keep such thoughts locked firmly away. I don't think I'm the only Vet who responds as such. Thanks for giving us the forum as this to express our grief over such a wonderful guy as Buck Kingman and my lastng fond memories of him."