May 26, 2025 - (Photo Album) - Shelby County VFW Post 8904 and community members gathered at Westview Cemetery in Center on Monday, May 26, 2025.
“What we plan on doing today is spreading out and putting the flags that we have here on every veteran’s grave,” said Larry Hume, VFW Post 8904 Adjutant.
Hume shared some history of Mac Buckley who was one of Shelby County’s own who lost his life in Vietnam. Several of his family were present for the event.
“Shelby County lost its ninth and final son in the Vietnam War, Mac Buckley,” said Hume. “He was killed in action in south Vietnam on July 5, 1968. He was drafted in 1966.”
Buckley was assigned to Company D, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment 25th Division, which was nicknamed “Tropic Thunder.”
“Mac arrived on a Sunday May 12, 1968 and less than two months later he was killed six days before his 23rd birthday. And he was buried right here, of course, full military honors,” said Hume.
Buckley was born to John and Myrtle Buckley on July 11, 1945, and he was a 1963 graduate of C.H. Daniels High School. Hume said that Kenneth McCollister, Mac’s brother, was also buried in Westview Cemetery and is also a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Following a prayer, everyone in attendance placed flags on the graves of veterans in the cemetery.
