Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. (/ˈsaɪmənˈbɒlɪvərˈbʌknər/ SY-mən BOL-i-vər BUK-nər; July 18, 1886 – June 18, 1945) was a lieutenant general in the United States Army during World War II. He served in the Pacific Theater of Operations and commanded the defenses of Alaska early in the war. Following that assignment, he was promoted to command the Tenth Army, which conducted the amphibious assault on the Japanese island of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. He was killed during the closing days of the Battle of Okinawa by enemy artillery fire, making him the highest-ranking United States military officer lost to enemy fire during World War II. He would remain the highest-ranking U.S. military member to be killed by a foreign armed action until the death of Lieutenant General Timothy Maude during the Septemb