My friends and Supporters,

This year is the 22nd Anniversary of the terrible events of September 11, 2001.

Aside from the victims who died by the hands of cowards, and their poor families who have had to bear the weight of their loss over the years, most people don’t think about the monumental effect that day had on this country’s warrior class, those who fought the war that followed, all paid a great cost. I was a young 18 year old Ranger on Alert (RF1) when me and 99 other young Rangers parachuted onto Objective Rhino (Kandahar Airfield) in a nighttime raid right after 9-11—the first Uniformed soldiers to set foot there in the Global War on Terror—a war that would last for the next 20 years and grind this country’s warrior class to dust.

I willingly signed up for duty to my nation and despite being wounded in combat, I continued to deploy over and over against to both Afghanistan and Iraq to become part of the Ranger community. Despite what I know now, a body full of scars on the inside and out at age 40, I know I would do it all over again. Watching my brothers die, fighting a losing war for a people that were actually terrified by the soldiers they had supported. My biggest regret is that the cost has not transposed itself onto the next generation… My beautiful, wonderful amazing girls are not paying the price for the chain of events that began 22 years ago.

For those of you that are familiar with my story, I’m sure you can understand how I connect those dots. It was my service training, the supposed “danger” that training created in me as a man and the presentation to a jury as someone to be feared and put away from society that was the prosecutions strategy to convict.

9-11 changed the trajectory of my life. I don’t want to dishonor my life or the men I fought beside by changing the path I took, but I regret so much that that path took me away from my kids. They were toddlers when I went to prison, they are teenagers now. Unless I can prove my innocence, I will be an old man when/if I see them again.

It is in this context that I ask for your help; we are trying to raise funds. There have been some positive developments in my case—the addition of another lawyer—and we’re looking at some new angles for my next appeal. This takes money. I have self-funded most of my Appellate process with some aid from donations but my own funds are running low!

My story is not done! I’ve been fighting for freedom my entire life– from age 18 against the Taliban to age 40 against the injustice of this system that convicted an innocent man. I really have faith and hope that Freedom is in sight, it’s real and tangible! I ask for your support, your prayers and if you can, for your donations. Thanks for taking the time to read this! If you would like to donate, please click on this link: https://www.justiceforjohnbuckley.com/the-fundraiser/

If you would like to read more in depth about my 9/11 experience, go to my updates:

https://www.justiceforjohnbuckley.com/tag/911/ https://www.justiceforjohnbuckley.com/20th-anniversary-of-the-iraq-war-update/

Also John’s Story Corp interview recorded and edited from prison calls where John is unjustly incarcerated and awaiting federal appeal. Conversation about his experiences at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, his life before and right after. https://www.justiceforjohnbuckley.com/storycorps-interview/