A funeral service will be held on November 3, 2014, at 11:00 A.M., in the chapel at Golden Gate National Cemetery, 1300 Sneath Lane, San Bruno, CA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the MOAA Scholarship Fund, which provides educational assistance for children of military families, or to any ROTC Scholarship Fund.
LTC John Carter Buchanan, USAR (Ret.)
John Buchanan was born in Long Beach, CA, the youngest of three children. His father was Pat Buchanan, a career naval officer, and his mother was Marie Carter Buchanan.
John graduated from Piedmont High School in June, 1942, and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.
As he remembers, “Shocked by our defeat and loss of four heavy cruisers in the Battle of Savo Island, I enlisted in the U.S. Army as a ‘buck private’, in December, 1942”.
He received basic training as a tanker at Ft. Knox, KY, and later attended Officer Candidate School there.
Shortly before his 19th birthday, John was commissioned as a temporary reserve officer. John shipped to Europe as a casual replacement in late 1944, joining the 771 Tank Battalion in the Siegfried Line Country, north of Aachen, Germany.
by V-E Day, the 771 Tank Battalion had fought in the Battle of the Bulge, joined the drive to the Rhine River with the 84th Infantry Division, supported the 17th Airborne in the Rhine River crossing, and ended the war on the Elbe River, west of Berlin, Germany.
“I was a 20 year-old tank lieutenant. I wasn’t old enough to vote, enter into a contract or serve on a jury. I couldn’t even marry without my parents’ permission, but my war was over and I survived.”
John returned home in 1946, to re-enter UC Berkeley, keeping his reserve commission.
In 1948, he returned to active duty and served the balance of 22 years as a reserve officer on active duty with tank and armored calvary units, assigned stateside and in Germany and Korea.
He spent 20 years training and preparing for combat during the Cold War, but never again, heard a shot fired in anger.
In 1950, as a fluent speaker of German, John was assigned as a member of a Military Intelligence detachment in Berlin.
He served with the 6th Tank Battalion in Korea in 1956 -1957. He retired from military service in 1965 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
John married Clarabell “Ceebie” Lewis on July 24, 1948, and they had two children.
John earned a MA in History and taught U.S. History and U.S. Government at San Benito High School for 17 years. He retired in 1984.
Ceebie passed away on May 15, 2000.
On April 3, 2004, John married Jerry Weil. Together, they traveled the world and she was by his side throughout his final illness.
John is survived by his wife, Jerry, his sisters, Katherine Buchanan Prugh and Patricia Buchanan Armstrong, his daughter, Lee Somavia and son. John Patton “Pat” Buchanan, as well as numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews.
John Carter Buchanan July 27, 1924 – October 21, 2014
