60 Years, A Tractor and a Korean War Veteran from Maine

A Moving Testimony to a Community’s Love for one of their Fallen Sons

Maine Misses A Veteran

by Ken Buckley, Bangor Maine

I will forever be astounded at seeing this tractor where Edgar left it almost 60 years ago.  For the few remaining islanders who knew Edgar, there are hundreds more from the mainland who have come to know him.  "That’s Edgar’s.  He said he’d move it when he comes back."

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On the beach at Cranberry Island, Maine, looking toward Mt. Desert Island with lobster boats at anchor.

 

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Cpl. Edgar Bunker USA of Cranberry Island, Maine, would haul boats up the shore each spring with his tractor.  He also painted and dreamed of getting into the boat building business full time.

Drafted in 1950 he walked away from his tractor, leaving it facing the Atlantic and the short span between his island home and Mt. Desert. What about you tractor, Ed’?" the islanders asked.

"Leave it.  I’ll move it when I come back."

Cpl. Edgar Bunker KIA Yonchon, Korea, October 8, 1951.
 
For almost sixty years, Edgar’s tractor has sat on the main beach at Cranberry Island, staunchly defying wind, tides and blizzards, as it slowly rusts away.  Over the years, thousands of visitors look at this hulk of rusting metal sinking slowly in the gray shell sand, and appear stunned when they are told -"That’s Edgar’s.  He said he’ll move it when he comes back." 

Stone placed in an island cemetery for Edgar 

In 1991 I started to build a Korean War Memorial. Some vets joined in.  On July 29, 1995, we dedicated what the Maine State Legislature decreed "The Official State of Maine Korean War Memorial."
 
Were but the islanders the custodians of the memorial, we would not be fighting so hard today to keep the official memorial safe from change.
 
Thanks for all you do,
 
Ken Buckley
Bangor, Maine.
     
[email protected]