Walter Jack Buckamier

Jack was born 1st of June 1922: he passed away on 23rd of February 2020.

He graduated high school in 1940 where he lettered in football and was captain of the baseball team. For the next two and one-half years, he played professional baseball in the spring and summer and attended the University of Cincinnati for the fall and winter semesters. He joined the USMC on the Marine Corps birthday in 1942 as a private. After boot camp, he was assigned to the Special Services Squadron at The Marine AFB at Cherry Point, NC. Among other duties, he was also the manager of the station baseball team. He remained in Special Services until appointed to Navy Flight School. He graduated as a fully qualified Aircraft Carrier-based fighter pilot. He served in the Pacific theater off on a Carrier until the war ended.

After the war, he resigned from his Officer's Commission and enrolled at the Engineering School of the University of Cincinnati on the GI Bill. He graduated with a BSEE and went to work as an electrical engineer. In 1954, he joined the California Air National Guard so he could continue to fly and he became a fully qualified Aircraft Maintenance Officer. It was in that Carrier field that he was appointed a Colonel. The ANG is what is called a weekend warier outfit where the service is one weekend a month with two weeks of active duty each year. Twice during the developing years, he was called on active duty during National problems like the Vietnam War. His civilian jobs were in Engineering and Management: he spent six years in the semiconductor industry where he helped develop the first integrated circuits that are the principle electronics in all of the handheld devices and computers used today.

In 1973, he went to Iran where he registered an Iranian Company to perform Consulting Engineering and Construction work. After a time, he bought a 30% interest in a metals manufacturing plant. By the spring of 1974, he had over 120 Iranians working for him and over $ 19 million dollars in contracts. When the Shaw left Iran and was replaced by Khomani all of his projects except one were shut down. Because he was an American he was not allowed to enter any Iranian public buildings. This was a problem but he continued the project to install trash-handling systems in 270 towers (10.000 condominium apartments) called Eckbatan near the Merabad airport. The project was overrun with young people carrying guns and on one occasion, he was shot at while working in a trash disposal room.

In September 1979, president carter (notice he didn't capitalize his name) ordered all Americans to leave Iran or they would lose the use of their passports. Jack was in the U.S. Embassy on 4 November 1979, visiting with the acting head of US/Iranian relations, Robert Ode, when the Iranians breached the Embassy walls. Mr. Ode received a phone call that by the expression on his face was serious so Jack said in leaving, "See you pang shambeh. which is Farsi for Thursday". When he returned to his office he called Mr. Ode who answered that the call would have to be brief because men with guns were outside his office. Mr. Ode became one of the U.S. hostages. When Jack left Iran on 24 November he was the last American to leave Iran except for the hostages. Back in the US, he was interviewed by the CIA and asked to comment, in writing, about his knowledge of the Shaw and his family, the Iranian Military and the Iranian people. He wrote three papers, two were classified. His knowledge of the Shaw and his family resulted from a personal services contract to teach the Shaw's 16 year old son how to perform slide/tape presentations. Twice he met the Shaw when Jack was at the palace, and the Shaw checked to see how the tutorial was progressing. On one occasion, Jack met the Queen. Jack had several contracts with the Iranian Military to install warehouse bins and racks and the Iranian military officials were comfortable talking to Jack when they learned of Jack's military past. The third unclassified paper was about the Iranian culture.

After Jack returned to the U.S. in November 1979, he filed a claim against Iran in January 1980 for the loss of his Company. This claim was filed via the established" Iran/American Claims Tribunal" He made two trips to the World Court in The Hague, the Netherlands in pursuit of his claim. In 1992, after 12 years of litigation he was awarded a modest settlement of his claims.

Jack joined the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee as an Engineering Contracts Manager. He wrote over $93 million in contracts to engineer and decorate the 32 Olympic venues.

Jack purchased his home in Las Vegas in 1992 where he lived with his wife until he died. He is survived by his wife, two sons and numerous grand and great-grandchildren.