Private Walter Avory “Sonny” Buckles Jr, was born in Bristol, Virginia to Walter Avory Buckles and Hattie May Cornelius He is listed on the Tablets of the Missing, East Coast Memorial, New York.
On 13 March 1945 in convoy during a storm the French aircraft carrier Béarn lost steering and collided with the transport resulting in the loss of 68 troops and one Naval Armed Guardsman. The destroyer escorts Earl K. Olsen and Roche rescued some men from the water. The transport put into Ponta Delgada, Azores for repairs before undergoing hull repairs at Bethlehem, Baltimore during May and June 1945. After repairs the transport made voyages out of the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation going to Naples in July then making voyages from there and New York to Italian and French ports including Marseille through 1946,
Kingsport Times, March 27, 1945
Capt. and Mrs. W.A. Buckles of Bristol have been notified by the War Department that their son, Pfc. Walter A. Buckles, Jr., 24, has been missing in action in the Mediterranean area since March 13.
Private Buckles was a member of the infantry and in a letter to his parents dated March 11 from New York he indicated that he was being flown to an European battle front, Captain Buckles, chief of the Bristol, Tenn., fire department said.
The young infantryman attended King College and was associated with the Chemistry department at Tennessee Eastman Corporation in Kingsport prior to entering the service in 1944. He trained at Camp Shelby, Miss., Camp La Plaunche, La., Ramp Reynolds, Pa., and Camp Gordon, Ga.
- Rank: Private
- Date of birth: 4 September 1920
- Date of death: 13 March 1945
- County: Sullivan
- Hometown: Bristol
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: Infantry
- Theater: Mediterranean
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: East Coast Memorial, Manhattan, New York County, New York
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XVIII, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Walter A. Buckles Jr.
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