Billy Joe Buckley

Bill Buckley, former command master chief at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center hospital and former manager of the Combat Center golf course, died April 8, 2011, at City of Hope Hospital in Duarte after a years-long battle with lung cancer. He was 76. A resident of Twentynine Palms since 1976, he was a loving husband to his wife of 49 years, Toshiko, a loving father to his son Frank, and a doting grandfather to his grandsons Ben and Sebastian. He was loved by his family and by everyone he touched. Bill was a strong man with a gentle soul who cared deeply about his family, his friends, his fellow man, his country, his church, and the sailors and Marines with whom he served. Master Chief Buckley was beloved by seaman and generals alike because he insisted that the former be treated with respect and dignity and the latter be given the truth no matter how it might ruffle their feathers. Master Chief Buckley took his coffee “regular Navy� as he liked to put it, and he and his family were proud of his service. He was born Billy Joe Buckley in Ward, W.Va., a on Sept. 7, 1934, to John Herman Buckley and Melda Akers Buckley, the fourth of nine children. His nickname was “Cubby Joe.� Bill's father was a coal miner and a president of the United Mine Workers of America Local 340, but Bill was determined not to work in the mines. Instead, he joined the U.S. Navy, serving proudly as a hospital corpsman in assignments that took him around the world caring for Marines in the field and sailors aboard ships. Bill was a devoted family man who met his wife Toshiko while posted to Yokosuka, Japan. They married in October 1961 at the American Consulate. In 1963, they moved to Washington, D.C., where Bill was assigned to the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Their son Frank was born in 1964 at Bethesda Naval Hospital. In 1966, Bill attended the Preventive Medicine Technician School in Oakland. Later that year, he returned to Japan with his wife and son, where he was assigned to the USS Mars, a combat stores ship. He served on the medical staff as the ship operated off the coast of Vietnam. Bill also served briefly on the staff of the Commander, Far East Military Sea Transportation Service in Yokohoma. In 1969, Bill and family moved to Naval Dispensary, Naval Air Station Sand Point in Seattle, Wash., where then Senior Chief Buckley served as senior enlisted adviser. In 1973, Bill accepted another assignment in Japan because his son Frank had lost his ability to speak Japanese. When Frank couldn’t converse with his Japanese grandmother on the phone from Seattle, it broke Bill's heart. In Japan, Bill served in the Pacific Command Joint Medical Regulating Office at Camp Zama and then later at the Naval Hospital in Yokosuka. In 1976, the family moved to Twentynine Palms, where Bill served as command master chief for Force Troops and later as command master chief at the then Branch Hospital. Master Chief Buckley retired in 1982 after 30 years of naval service and a career guiding young men and women whom he led by example. Among his awards and decorations are the Navy Commendation Medical, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, Navy Occupation Service Medal with Europe Clasp, Vietnam Service Medal with One Star, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Gallantry Cross and numerous Good Conduct Awards. Bill was just as proud of the many trophies won by his son and the other kids he coached in baseball and basketball over the years. Upon retiring from the Navy, Bill became the manager of the Combat Center golf course, where he worked tirelessly doing every job on the course from cutting grass to managing the budget. He finally retired in 1991. Bill and Toshiko proudly watched their son Frank on TV as he worked as a reporter and anchor on various stations and eventually on CNN before returning to Los Angeles as co-anchor of the KTLA Morning News. While neither Bill nor Toshiko graduated from university, they both encouraged Frank to do so from an early age — saving and sacrificing to build a college fund. One of their proudest days was when their son graduated from USC with a double major in history and broadcast journalism. Bill loved watching television shows like “Walker, Texas Ranger,� and he was known for getting mad at his television and turning it off when the Los Angeles Lakers or the West Virginia Mountaineers were losing. He was a man of simple tastes who loved nothing more than a bowl of West Virginia-style pinto beans. When dining, he rarely engaged in conversation except to declare that whatever he was eating — even if it was the best or most expensive meal he'd ever had — was “not bad.� In recent years, Bill enjoyed playing golf with friends, spending time with his grandchildren, and traveling to West Virginia to meet up with his brothers and sisters and old friends at the annual Ward Reunion to exchange memories about life in the coal mining community now largely grown over with trees and weeds. Among the memories he enjoyed recounting were his participation as an outfielder and base stealer on the East Bank High School baseball team that won the 1951 West Virginia state championship. He talked every week by phone with his brothers and sisters and many of his 16 nephews and nieces. He was known affectionately by his grandsons as “Poppa.� Bill was preceded in death by his parents; brothers Sam Buckley of Seattle, John “Jack� Buckley Jr. of San Antonio, Texas, and Fred Buckley of Glasgow, W.Va.; and sister Pauline Tucker of Hugheston, W.Va. He is survived by his wife Toshiko Buckley; son Frank Buckley; daughter-in-law Elena Pearce Buckley; grandsons Ben and Sebastian Buckley; brothers Carl and Robert Buckley; sisters Goldie Sue Farley and Rosenia Olson; sister-in-law Yuki Kaneko and brother-in-law Yoshikazu Kaneko. In a family genealogy book, Bill once wrote the three words that he said best described him: “serious, quiet and hard-headed.� Those who knew him also used words like “humble� and “humorous, kind-hearted and giving.� Even in his final days, Bill made nurses and doctors laugh even as they worried about his declining health. “When were you born, Mr. Buckley?� nurses would ask. “September 7th, 1943,� Bill would say with a wink, knowing that he was born in 1934. Bill overcame a series of health challenges beginning some 15 years ago when he had major surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. A similar surgery would follow years later as did another to repair a brain aneurysm. Bill was diagnosed with lung cancer 10 years ago, resulting in a lobectomy to remove a portion of his lung along with another one last May. Still, Bill continued playing golf at the Combat Center golf course and playing grandpa when he traveled with Toshiko to Los Angeles to visit his grandsons. A few weeks ago, he contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized first at Hi-Desert Medical Center and then at a hospital he came to love, City of Hope. Several days ago, he suffered respiratory failure and doctors placed him under heavy sedation as they fought to save his life. The night before he collapsed, he was upbeat and jovial, and enjoyed a “dinner party� in his room with his wife, son Frank and grandson Sebastian. There was laughter and love and the promise of more such evenings ahead. On Friday, April 8, he died peacefully in his sleep with his wife and son at his side. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Bill’s name to City of Hope in Duarte so that others facing the challenges of cancer might receive the same quality compassionate care he enjoyed in his final days. Burial will take place at Riverside National Cemetery. At 10 a.m. Saturday, April 16, Bill’s life will be celebrated in a public memorial service at the church he helped to build as a trustee: Desert Congregational Church, 5688 Sunrise Road in Twentynine Palms, with Pastor Bob Whaley officiating.