Bucha will lead Connecticut Veterans Day parade Sunday

Written by Macklin Reid, Press Staff
Saturday, 07 November 2009 06:30

Retired Army Captain Paul Bucha of Ridgefield — an unrelenting veterans advocate who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor and Purple Heart for service in Vietnam — will be grand marshal of the Connecticut Veterans Day Parade.

“I’m really somewhat humbled by it. I normally just show up and stand on the sideline like everybody else,” he said. “...For me, this parade is quite an honor: It’s a chance to ask people to come out, knock on the door of their neighbor who’s serving in the guard or reserves, and say ‘How are you doing? Can I help with kids? Can I do anything?’ It’s a chance to turn to your neighbor who’s in the guard and reserves and say thank you.”

He will lead a parade of some 4,000 through Hartford on Sunday, Nov. 8, starting at 1 p.m. near the Capitol.

“I prefer to walk, I hope they’ll let me,” he said. “I’m not that old yet — although sometimes I feel it.”

The 10th anniversary Connecticut Veterans Day Parade is billed as one of largest salutes to veterans in the nation. Any Connecticut resident who is an active, retired or honorably discharged member of the U.S. Armed Forces is welcome. Organizers also seek veterans groups, patriotic commissions, town delegations, and marching bands from across the state. This year’s the parade features the University of Connecticut and Central Connecticut State University marching bands.

The parade will pause as tolling of church bells and a moment of silence honor veterans who gave their lives.

Before the parade is a wreath-laying ceremony at noon at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch at Jewell and Trinity streets in Hartford’s Bushnell Park.

How did Mr. Bucha come to be grand marshal?

“I have no idea,” he said.

Mr. Bucha is involved in national security and veterans issues with the support of President Barack Obama’s administration, after serving as an adviser to Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Among his veterans causes is an effort to increase recognition of post traumatic stress disorder or “PTSD” — a problem rising with the prolonged and repeated deployments of troops in combat zones — Iraq, Afghanistan.

Extreme post traumatic stress disorder, he said, manifests itself in three ways:

• “Inexplicable acts of violence” within the theater of war — “mowing down people ... seeking retribution by just killing people,” he said.

• Violence continuing when home from the war zone —“spousal abuse, picking fights”; and

• “Inexplicable acts of violence against oneself,” particularly suicides.

“There are problems with murders in the war zone, spousal abuse at home, drunkenness at home, and suicides — you know you’ve stretched your force too thin,” he said.

Tours of duty are too long, he said, and personnel don’t get enough time away from a war zone before going back.

“We’ve been running 15 months in, nine months out, sometimes even less,” Mr. Bucha said.

“Vietnam, it was one year in, one year out — and it didn’t work.”

Army studies after the Vietnam experience showed a three to one ratio was needed — six months in the war zone followed by 18 months away from it, he said.

“We’ve been running less than one out for every year in, and we know that doesn’t work. It’s absolutely unfair,” he said.

“And that’s the debate you have now: Can the force take it?” he said. “...This is soon to be the longest war in our nation’s history.”

The parade will feature a special salute to the men and women who served on active duty in the Vietnam War. This year marks the 35th anniversary since the last U.S. troops left Vietnam in 1974.

Mr. Bucha distinguished himself in Vietnam, after graduating from West Point in 1965 and completing his Airborne and Ranger training between academic years at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

On March 16, 1968, Captain Bucha was commanding a reconnaissance mission dropped by helicopter near Phuoc Vinh, Binh Duong Province. With his men pinned down by machine-gun fire, he crawled 40 meters through a hail of enemy fire to single-handedly destroy the bunker with grenades.

Seeing his unit’s perimeter about to be overrun, he ordered a withdrawal while providing covering fire, though wounded himself. During the night, he ordered his men to “play dead” while he brought in friendly fire on the enemy. He also stood, in full view of the enemy, using a flashlight to direct the evacuation of the most seriously wounded by three helicopters.

Captain Bucha received, among other decorations, the Bronze Star with V and Oak Leaf Cluster, the Purple Heart and the Medal of Honor.

He then taught economics at West Point. Mr. Bucha later worked for Electronic Data Systems, had his own international consulting firm, and is now a real estate developer.

He has served on boards of The Fisher House Foundation and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which support military families and wounded warriors. He is active in the American Legion, U.S. Army Ranger Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

He has four children, three grandchildren, and lives in Ridgefield with his wife, Cynthia.