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'''Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|m|ə|n|_|ˈ|b|ɒ|l|ᵻ|v|ər|_|ˈ|b|ʌ|k|n|ər}} {{respell|SY|mən}} {{respell|BOL|i-vər}} {{respell|BUK|nər}}; July 18, 1886 – June 18, 1945) was a [[Lieutenant general (United States)|lieutenant general]] in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War II]] who served in the [[Pacific War|Pacific Theater]]. As commanding general of [[Alaska Defense Command]], Buckner commanded American-Canadian forces in the [[Aleutian Islands campaign]], including the [[Battle of Attu]] and the [[Operation Cottage|Kiska Expedition]]. Following that assignment, he was promoted to command the [[Tenth United States Army|Tenth Army]], which conducted the amphibious invasion of the Japanese island of [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]] in 1945. He was killed during the closing days of the [[Battle of Okinawa]] by enemy artillery fire, making him one of the highest-ranking United States [[military officers]] lost to enemy fire during World War II.<ref>Sarantakes p. 129</ref>
Buckner, [[Lesley J. McNair]], [[Frank Maxwell Andrews]], and [[Millard Harmon]], all lieutenant generals at the time of their deaths, were [[List of U.S. general officers and flag officers killed in World War II|the highest-ranking Americans to be killed in World War II]]. Buckner and McNair were posthumously promoted to the rank of four-star [[General (United States)|general]] on July 19, 1954, by a Special [[Act of Congress]] (Public Law 83-508).
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As Buckner stood at the outpost, a small flat-trajectory Japanese artillery shell of unknown caliber (estimated to have been 47mm) struck a coral rock outcrop near him, and fragments pierced his chest.<ref name=military>Military Vol XVII, pp22 & 23</ref><ref>Marine Corps Gazette, p.103</ref> 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.
Bucker was the highest-ranking American military officer killed during World War II, and he remained the highest-ranked officer killed in action until the death of Lieutenant General [[Timothy Maude]] during the [[September 11 attacks]].
==Personal life==
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