Paul "Buddy" Bucha (1943-2024) was born in Washington, D.C., and was raised traveling the world as the son of an Army officer who had made “a good deal of money” during World War II. He attended West Point, swimming and playing water polo competitively, then Stanford Graduate School of Business, from which he graduated in 1967, and was commissioned in the Army as a first lieutenant. While on vacation during graduate school, he also completed Airborne and Ranger training. After graduating Stanford, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne as a company commander, but initially he was the only person assigned to the company he commanded, Delta Company, 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry. After building the company from scratch, comprised largely of misfits and outcasts he recruited from the stockade, he deployed with his men to Vietnam where he promptly got in a fight with a huge drunk guy, earning the everlasting respect and approval of his men. Bucha describes biting the heads off live chickens, allowing his men to “borrow” a mess tent from the Marines for a church, the folly of night cordons and night defensive positions, and the wisdom of DePuy fighting bunkers. He remembers locking up firearms at the embassy (“check them at the door to the saloon”), watching movies and eating ice cream, the fox terrier (or poodle) “chasing the five mastiff bandwagon,” and also Claymores, Gatling guns, grenade launchers, and a sniper in the Y of a tree. And he discusses the fight for which every man in his company was awarded the Bronze Star with V, or higher, and he himself was awarded the Medal of Honor.