Air Force veteran experience ran gamut of service

MARC BUCKHOUT ~ MANAGING EDITOR ~6/22/2011

One can get a fairly thorough U.S. military lesson simply by getting a run down of Anthem resident Buddy Sims’ career.
From a three year stint when he entered the Marine Corps right out of high school to a 24-year run in the Air Force, Sims was on active duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam and most recently being called out of retirement to serve in Saudi Arabia in 2002.
The retired Lieutenant Colonel now spends his time split between his summer home in Colorado and his winter home here in Anthem.
In November Sims will be among those enshrined in the Ring of Honor at the Anthem Veterans Memorial, which will be dedicated on Nov. 11.
Not only will Sims be recognized with a brick paver, but so to will his great-grandfather Elija Sims, who is believed to be the oldest
veteran, associated with the memorial, which will be built beginning in July.
“It wasn’t until three years ago that I was going through some old family pictures and found a picture of this guy,” he said. “My grandpa died when I was only 7 and I didn’t know anything about my great grandfather, but we did some research and it turns out he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.”
Despite having a Civil War veteran in his family Sims decision to join the military was not part of the family tradition as his grandfather had been an inventor and a teacher and his dad was a welder.
After three years in the Marines, Sims went onto college at Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas.
He then joined the Air Force in 1967 and was sent to Vietnam where he enjoyed what he called the best assignment of his military career as a Forward Air Controller in 1968. His job consisted of providing support to Army units in direct enemy contact by directing fighter, aircraft, gunships, and Army artillery to assist U.S. and South Vietnamese Army ground troops in enemy combat.
“We were the eyes and ears for our fighters,” he said. “We’d direct fighters shooting bombs to areas where our soldiers needed support. We had starlight scopes directing attacks on the Vietcong. It was a demanding job. We were in the air day and night.”
For most of 22 years in the Air Force Sims flew or trained other pilots. Initially retiring in 1989 he went into the airline industry for a number of years before going into business.
Following 9/11 Sims received a phone call early in 2002 asking if he would come back to active duty.
“There was a big group of us gray hairs,” he said. “We figured they needed some people with some experience that could do some training things, perhaps some tactics, but basically we thought we’d help out for a year or so, drink some coffee and then go home.”
Instead in Nov. 2002 Sims was among a crew that was deployed to Saudi Arabia.
There he would experience what he deems the second best assignment of his military career, some 34 years after his top assignment in Vietnam, as he directed coalition strikes from a Combined Air Operations Center.
By May 2003 he was back in the U.S., where he continued to serve through 2004 before retiring for a second time. At that point he was recognized as the last active military man who had served during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In retirement, for the second time, Sims and his wife Bonnie purchased a winter home in Anthem a little more than a year ago. Sims, who helped establish a Veterans Memorial in Colorado is excited about the completion of a memorial in Anthem.
“There are a lot of people that didn’t come back from serving and a lot that came back injured,” he said. “There’s a saying that freedom isn’t free, somebody has to pay the price for it. No matter how or where our soldiers served, whether they saw combat or not, I think it is great that Anthem is going to have a big thank you to the troops.”
Orders for inscribed pavers must be received by June 30 to guarantee placement at the Veterans Memorial site for the opening ceremony and dedication on November 11, 2011. To purchase pavers, print a gift certificate, or donate to the Memorial, go to OnlineAtAnthem.com, and click on the Veterans Memorial link on the left.