Lowell was an All-State football player. He got a college scholarship because of it. He also was a Golden Gloves boxer. He lost his final fight in the final round of the Tri-State Golden Gloves Championship. The fellow who defeated him was his room mate throughout the tournament. He took his defeat as a man should. He was a great sport and never once said anything bad or negative, even in defeat. He was a very popular person in the Jefferson area. He had many girlfriends. He never got serious with any of them and was never mean to any of them. Everybody wanted to be his friend. He was in his third year of college when he signed up for the draft. He figured he would be called as soon as he finished college the next year. To his surprise, he was drafted two months later, right after the school year ended. During high school and college, he worked for the City Police and also Armour Packing Company. He was self sufficient from the time he was in high school. He never smoked or drank liquor. He was just the finest young man you would ever want to meet. I am starting to remember more and more things.



"You know, Lowell flew a total of 50-some missions. Once he burned his hands and spend some time in the hospital. He was on a training or practice mission when he went down. We were told that he missed his target which was out in the North Sea, on his first two passes. Knowing Lowell, I can just imagine what went through his mind. He was the kind of guy who would have thought, "I'm not missing this time," and probably took a greater risk than he should have. You know, he was my closest cousin. I played with him when we were small. When he died, the whole family was all torn apart."



From an email I received 10-26-2001:

Dear Dennis,

My name is Joe Clark and my father flew with the 56th FG. His name was Lt James J. Clark (He was flying with Lowell's group the day he crashed) and had passed away at the age of 52. He never really talked much about being over there and what it was like, so when I got a computer last year the 56th was the first thing I looked up and have been hooked ever since. I saw your message posted on the P47 pilots board so I looked up your cousin. I found three places in the books that I have. I have attached them and hope you find them of interest.

I also found allot of information on a forgotten cousin of my father's who was a B-24 Co-pilot who went down in France and was KIA. My father was up the same day flying escort. Let me know if this has been of any help. Best Regards, Joe Clark

From the daily log printed in the book, the following appears; "Dec 14 (1944) No regular mission was scheduled, so Major Smith led a practice low level mission with four more P-47's of the 62 Fighter Squadron over the English Channel. During a turn, the Thunderbolt flown by 2nd Lt Lowell Buchmiller drug it's left wing tip into a wave. His P-47 cart wheeled, exploded and sank. Mr. Buchmiller was killed."