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Contact Info
Home Town Brookville, IN
Last Address Annapolis, MD
Date of Passing Apr 03, 2001
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates 9 5847 EH
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Charles Allen Buchanan, 96, a retired rear admiral who commanded a destroyer division and squadron during the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns of World War II and retired in 1964 as commander of the naval district in Hawaii, died of respiratory failure April 3, 2001, at Ginger Cove Health Center in Annapolis, Maryland.
He was operations officer and assistant chief of staff for an amphibious task force that landed in Sicily and Salerno, Southern Italy, and in the Marshall Islands and Guam during WWII. After the war, he became an aide to James Forrestal, the Navy secretary who was the first secretary of defense.
Admiral Buchanan was an operations officer in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, commanded the USS Worcester and was commandant at the U.S. Naval Academy in the early 1950s. He commanded a destroyer squadron in the Far East and was commander of the naval base at Newport, R.I. In Hawaii, he coordinated completion of the USS Arizona-Pearl Harbor Memorial.
Admiral Buchanan was a native of Brookville, Indiana, and a graduate of the Naval Academy.
His honors included the Navy Cross, two awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with Gold Star and Combat "V" and the Silver Lifesaving Medal.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
Awarded for actions during World War II The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain Charles Allen Buchanan, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism as Officer in Tactical Command of a Radar Picket Station Unit during action against enemy Japanese forces at Okinawa in the Ryukyu Chain, on 12 April 1945. When an overwhelming force of Japanese aircraft flew in over his Task Force and launched a vicious suicide attack, Captain Buchanan fought his ships gallantly throughout the fierce engagement and, despite the tremendous odds, contributed to the success of his unit and cooperating combat air patrol squadron in accounting for more than thirty enemy aircraft shot down with minimum loss in personnel or damage to his own Task Force. An inspiring and forceful leader, highly skilled in the strategies of naval warfare, Captain Buchanan, by his superb direction of his ships' gunfire, his valiant conduct and courageous devotion to duty throughout this intensive action, contributed materially to the success of the bitterly fought Okinawa campaign and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Action Date: April 12, 1945 Service:Navy Rank: Captain Company: Officer in Tactical Command Division: Radar Picket Station Unit, Okinawa
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Okinawa Gunto Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.