The Vietnam War would continue for seven more years after Shelby County, Texas lost her ninth and final son. Private First Class Mac Curtis Buckley of Center, Texas was killed in action by an explosive device in the Gia Dinh Province of South Vietnam on July 5th, 1968. Mac Curtis was drafted in the US Army in 1966. His military occupation specialty (MOS) was 11B10, Infantryman. He was assigned to D Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Tropic Thunder).

PFC Buckley arrived in Vietnam on Sunday, May 12th, 1968 and less than two months later he was killed six days before his 23rd birthday. He was buried with full military honors at the Westview Cemetery in Center, Texas.

Mac Curtis Buckley was born to John Buckley and Myrtle Fountain Buckley on July 11th, 1945 in Center, Texas. They were married on October 3, 1943 and his father John never saw his son as he died in World War II before Mac’s birth. Mac Buckley was a 1963 graduate of Daniel’s High School. His brother Kenneth W. McCollister (1948 – 2010) also served during the Vietnam War.

The carnage of the Vietnam War was now over in Shelby County. “Welcome Home Brother”.

References: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Wall of Faces; The Virtual wall, profile: Ancestry.com, and the Wall-USA.

Larry Hume,