Posted on 02/25/2008 4:54:18 PM PST by SandRat
FORT DRUM, N.Y. — In 1977, Jeff Buchanan received his diploma as a graduate of Buena High School.
And on Feb. 8, the 1982 University of Arizona graduate with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology received his first star, making him an Army brigadier general.
His proud mother traveled from Sierra Vista to Fort Drum to help promote him.
Carolyn Buchanan, who has lived in Sierra Vista since 1978 and resided in the area when she and her husband Paul came to Fort Huachuca for previous assignments, talked about her son with pride on Saturday.
“He was a good boy. Never got in trouble,” she said.
As for the latter, she laughed and said, “As far as I know he never got in trouble.”
An A student at Buena and a golfer on the school’s team during his sophomore and junior years, she said she knew he was going to make the military a career.
“He was always gung-ho,” the mother said of the man she calls Jeffrey.
A year after graduating from Buena, he visited his mother and father in Germany, where his father, a colonel, was assigned.
It was a sad vacation for her son. His father died of a massive heart attack on his 45th birthday.
That brought her back to Sierra Vista. Her late husband, Paul, is buried in the Fort Huachuca Cemetery.
The Buchanan family had lived in the area when her husband served on the post a couple of times as a Signal Corps officer, including a stint as the commander of Libby Army Airfield.
When her husband went off to serve in Vietnam, the family moved to the Papago Indian Reservation, where she taught school. After returning to Sierra Vista in 1978, she has taught third grade at a post school and anthropology at Cochise College before retiring.
Now, 73, the general’s mother said there are not enough words to say how proud she is of Jeffrey’s accomplishments, “I knew he was going to make a career out of the Army. He was always military oriented.”
As for his promotion ceremony, she said, “I kept smiling all the way through it. His father would have been so proud.”
Beside his mother, the deputy commanding general for operations of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) had his wife, Laura, and daughter, Clara, take part in the promotion ceremony at the upstate New York installation officiated by Maj. Gen. Mike Oates, commander of the division and Fort Drum.
Buchanan’s wife is a 1983 UA graduate, and his daughter is junior at Carthage High School. He and his wife also have two sons, Matt, a senior at the University of Hawaii, and Jake, a sophomore at Northern Arizona University. The sons could not attend the ceremony. Buchanan has two older married sisters, Cynthia, who lives in Portsmouth, Va., and Susan, who resides in Tucson.
As for her eldest grandson, Carolyn Buchanan said it appears he is following in his father’s footsteps.
He will be commissioned in May after graduating from the University of Hawaii, where he is a member of that school’s ROTC program.
“We’ll all be going for his commissioning, and then Jeffrey will be leaving for Iraq,” she said.
In 1982, Buchanan was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry after spending four years in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the UA.
His first assignment was as a rifle platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division.
Like many Army officers, he went through a variety of assignments, including a company, battalion and brigade commander.
Besides the 82nd, his assignments have included the 25th Infantry Division (Light) and 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
He also served as director of operations for Joint Task Force Full Accounting in the late 1990s, an organization involved in finding for Americans still missing in action from the Vietnam War and as director of combat development for the U.S. Infantry Center, from where he deployed as the director of operations with the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team supporting the Iraqi military.
His brigade command was with the 75th Division, which deployed to Iraq in 2005 training Iraqi Special Police Commando Transition Teams.
One of his earlier assignments was at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY., as a company and battalion tactical officer. He also earned a master’s degree in leadership development from the academy.
According to an article written by 10th Mountain Division staff writer Jason Cutshaw, the new brigadier general said he had a lot of help during his time in the Army.
“I want to thank everyone who helped me get to where I am,” he said. “I know I wouldn’t be here today without my family, friends and mentors who were there every step of the way.”
As for mentors, Buchanan said they are not always people senior in rank.
“Sometimes they are the senior noncommissioned officers who have helped you along the way. And I was blessed to have some of the best help me along in my career,” he said.
And one can bet some of his mentors were his parents — especially mom.
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Maj. Gen. Mike Oates, right, of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) and Fort Drum commander, presents newly promoted Brig. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, 10th Mountain Division, deputy commanding general for operations, with his general officer’s pistol belt while Buchanan’s mother, Carolyn, looks on during a ceremony on Feb. 8 at the upstate New York Army post. (U.S. Army photo)
Very Cool. Climb To Glory bump.
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