Brian L. Buker

In 2018 the Maine State Prison named their American Legion Post after Buker.

For these actions, Buker was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He was one of three people from Maine to receive the medal in Vietnam, the others being Thomas J. McMahon and Donald Sidney Skidgel. His other decorations include a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Vietnamese Gallantry Cross. On September 15, 2010, Buker's family donated his Medal of Honor and other decorations to his alma mater, Lawrence High School in Fairfield, for display.

Buker joined the Army from Bangor, Maine in 1968, and by April 5, 1970, was serving as a sergeant in Detachment B-55, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces. On that day, he was acting as a platoon advisor for a Vietnamese mobile strike force company on a mission in Chau Doc Province, Republic of Vietnam. When his platoon came under intense fire, he single-handedly destroyed one enemy bunker, was seriously wounded, and then destroyed another bunker despite these wounds. He was killed later in the battle as he reorganized his soldiers.

Brian Leroy Buker (November 3, 1949 – April 5, 1970) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.

Buker was born on November 3, 1949, in Benton, Maine, the youngest of four sons of Opal Buker Clark. He grew up in Benton and graduated from Lawrence High School in nearby Fairfield in 1967. His brothers, Victor, Gerald, and Alan, also served in the Vietnam War.