View the original article here: 99 Years and Counting of Family Service | Military.com.
WASHINGTON — Commander, Fleet Air Forward and Patrol Reconnaissance Force 5th and 7th Fleets, promoted his son, now a new lieutenant attached to Patrol Squadron Eight in Jacksonville, Fla., during a ceremony held in Sarasota, Fla., Dec. 21.
The promotion was just the latest event in a long tradition of naval service for the Buck family.
Rear Adm. Sean Buck officiated the promotion of his son, Jeff, from lieutenant junior grade to lieutenant in front of the symbolic World War II “Unconditional Surrender” statue in downtown Sarasota. Both are naval flight officers (NFO) in the P-3C Orion aviation community.
Retired Navy Capt. Edward Guy Buck, also a career naval aviator, pinned the lieutenant bars on his grandson.
“I am so happy to be a part of my grandson’s promotion ceremony,” stated the retired captain. “Our family is filled with naval service, and the tradition of serving our great country proudly carries on in the Buck family.”
A Sarasota resident, the eldest Buck is a member of the U.S. Naval Academy’s class of 1948, who served 30 years as a pilot in the P-2V Neptune community after receiving his commission. The P-2V was the predecessor of the modern P-3C.
His first duty station was Patrol Squadron 26 in Patuxent River, Md., the same squadron that his son Sean would later lead as both executive officer and commanding officer.
From 1959-1963, he was attached to the Bureau of Naval Weapons in Wash., D.C., where he served as initiating program manager for Project A-New. That project began the transformation of all aircraft electronic devices from analog to digital systems, which are currently in use in the aircraft the younger Bucks fly in today.
Naval service in the Buck family goes beyond these three men. Buck and his wife Maryln’s eldest son, Edward Jr., also served in the Navy. Maryln’s father, Arthur F. Whittier, another Navy veteran, enlisted in 1913 and retired in 1950 as a lieutenant commander. Buck’s brother, A. Lester Buck, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1945 and served in the submarine force.
Additionally, Buck introduced his sister, Ann Clements, to now-retired Rear Adm. Neal Clements, who served more than 30 years in the Civil Engineer Corps. The Clements had two sons who graduated from the Naval Academy.
“Today is a great day for our Navy, our family and for the newest lieutenant in the United States Navy, Lieutenant Jeff Buck. Ninety-nine years of naval service and counting,” proudly stated Rear Adm. Buck.