2025 Recipients of the Sergeant First Class Raymond Richard Buchan Memorial Scholarship
The Sergeant First Class Raymond Richard Buchan Memorial Scholarship Committee is pleased to recognize the four recipients of the 2025 Buchan Memorial Scholarship. Each student is to be commended for his or her work ethic, extracurricular school activities, community service, and demonstrated leadership. The Scholarship Committee is pleased to provide each recipient with a $2,500 scholarship to continue his or her education. Forty-three scholarships have been awarded since the Buchan Memorial Scholarship was founded in July 2009.
Reflections of a past recipient … What it means to be a recipient of the Buchan Memorial Scholarship.
2010 Recipient Michael Young
Being the first recipient of the Sergeant First Class Raymond Richard Buchan Memorial Scholarship was, and continues to be, a great honor. I come from a military family, and during World War II my maternal grandfather served in the Navy while my paternal grandfather served in the Air Force.
After the War, my paternal grandfather established and served as the first commander of the 18th Air Force. He retired as a Colonel, and his service ultimately inspired his sons to join the military, including my father who was an Army Ranger.
My grandfather received a purple heart for his service, and my father received three purple hearts during his multiple tours of duty in the Vietnam War. My dad doesn’t talk much about his time during the War, but one thing he has mentioned is how lucky he feels that afterwards he was able to start a family and help raise his three sons.
Unfortunately, not all who serve are as lucky.
SFC Buchan made the ultimate sacrifice for his Country, and I feel incredibly honored to have been the first recipient of the scholarship created in his name. When considering all that SFC Buchan gave for his Country, I try to reflect on the fact that this sacrifice was not his alone, but that it was also made by his family, his friends, and all those who love him.
The scholarship helped me to attend the Pennsylvania State University, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Since then, I have relocated to Richmond, VA where I work as a transportation engineer and enjoy spending every free moment I have with my wife and my newborn son. Even though I moved south, I still love Johnstown and I continue to visit my hometown any chance that I can get.
Since the birth of my son, I try to be especially considerate of the sacrifice that our service men and women make every day to ensure that he can grow up and thrive in a secure country. I try to remember to be grateful for those like SFC Buchan, and to use that feeling to make sure that I’m focusing on the things that really matter.
Receiving the scholarship has helped to give me the perspective to appreciate these things, but it has also provided me with an opportunity to give back to future scholarship recipients in the hope that they will also be able to reflect on and share the story of SFC Buchan’s sacrifice. These sacrifices help to ensure our way of life, and it’s extremely important that we recognize and honor all those who have given so much.
Lieutenant Colonel Craig Minnick, U.S. Army (Retired), is very pleased to announce that Mr. Michael Young, the first recipient of the Sergeant First Class Raymond Richard Buchan Memorial Scholarship, has agreed to become a member of the scholarship committee. Michael graduated from Westmont Hilltop High School in 2010 and subsequently graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering.
The Sergeant First Class Raymond Richard Buchan Memorial Scholarship and Veterans Education Project was established in July 2009 to honor the memory of Westmont High School graduate Raymond Richard Buchan, who was killed in Iraq in July 2007.
Click here for more information about the scholarship.
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Please e-mail us at buchanscholarship@gmail.com and let us know if we omitted any War Memorials or Veterans Monuments of Cambria County.