hoover1

Sergeant Buford D. Hoover

1st Platoon, C Company, 4th/47th Battalion, 2nd Brigade

Charlie Company Memorabilia

Written by John Young - 1st Platoon

To my great sadness, we have lost one of our best. Buford Hoover died on 5 Nov 2001, at Fort Gordon, Georgia. His wife of more than 35 years, a daughter and a grandson survive him.

All of us who served with him were better for it. Buford Hoover was a natural soldier, an utterly reliable leader, a priceless friend, and a perfect morale-builder at the times when we really needed it. In the very worst times that we had in Vietnam, just knowing that Sergeant Hoover was there made you feel better. I will never forget him.

I am sure that every man from our unit who reads this will recall some special memory of Buford Hoover. I have so many that I

Buford Hoover - Mekong Delta - 1967
Photo courtesy of John Young

have trouble knowing what to mention here, but some moments come readily: Sergeant Hoover had just finished mixing and heating up a cup of C-Ration coffee when we came under fire…..he dove for the nearest rice paddy dike, losing the coffee in the process. When he raised his head to see what was happening, he looked at me and said "Charlie sure knows how to f--- up a good cuppa coffee". On 11 July, when the 2nd platoon suffered so badly, I was next to him when we received word that SSG Smith was dead, Hoover flinched ever so slightly, swallowed hard, and simply said "I'm gonna miss that man." It said a lot coming from him. I can still hear him giving us his normal words of caution whenever we started to move out, "Watch out for snoopers and blooby-traps," words of some small silliness that always made us smile at least a little.

You didn't have to know Hoover very long to find out that he was from "West By-God Virginia," and that he knew all there was to know about soldiering. He was always a step ahead of any situation, and I used to marvel at his perfect coolness under fire. I was always very scared, and it seemed that Hoover never was. He was a great NCO.

Hoover and I were on the same plane for an R&R to Hawaii. He would see his wife, and I had a girlfriend there. At the end of 5 days, we sat next to each other for the flight back to Vietnam and he took one last long look out the window, sat back and said "Just one bad thing about an R&R to Hawaii."

"What's that?" I asked and he answered, "It sure makes you want to live."

That was Buford Hoover. He was a man who could say so much with such few words. I've never had a better friend and I'll never know a better man.

I'm gonna miss this man. . .

Sergeant Buford Hoover
with Mrs. Hoover at Charlie
Company's Party. Fort Riley,
Kansas - Nov. 1966
Photo courtesy of Mike Cramer

Mr. Buford Hoover

Web posted Wednesday, November 7, 2001

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Buford D. Hoover, U.S. Army Ret., entered into rest on Monday, November 5, 2001, at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medical Center, Fort Gordon. Funeral services will be held 3 p.m. Thursday, November 8 at Elliott Sons Funeral Home Lumpkin Road Chapel. Interment will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Park. Mr. Hoover was a native of Beckley, West Virginia and has lived in the Augusta area for the past 18 years. He served in and retired from the U. S. Army after 27 1/2 years of service. He served our country in Korea and two tours of Vietnam. He is survived by his loving wife of 36 years, Mrs. Ruth Hoover, Hephzibah; his daughter and son-in-law, Birgitt and Johnny Gregory, Hephzibah; his grandson, Luther Buford Holsonback, Goldsboro, N.C. and his great-grandson, Jakob Holsonback. Serving as pallbearers will be Luther B. Holsenback, Kevin E. Tesch, Mitch Wall, Dan Hollinsworth, Richard Bulkum and Birgitt Gregory. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. Elliott Sons Funeral Home, 2524 Lumpkin Road, Augusta, GA 30906 The Augusta Chronicle November 7, 2001.