Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. (July 18, 1886 - June 18, 1945) was an American general during World War II. He served in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Killed in the Battle of Okinawa in the closing days of the battle by artillery fire. Buckner was the highest ranking American to die during the war.
Earlier in the war, he had commanded troops in Alaska. A southerner and avowed racist, when told he would be commanding black troops, he vehemently opposed it. He said that he feared they would cross breed with the native alaskans and produce "the ugliest race the world has ever seen."
His father was Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr