Henry "Buck" Weaver was born in July 1920 in Blackview, South Carolina. His father worked for the telephone company and he moved his family all over South Carolina and North Carolina. When he graduated from high school he applied for and was accepted into the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. Weaver had recently graduated when he Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. When the war started, he received a commission in the Army and was assigned to the 315th Troop Carrier Group in Pennsylvania, however, there was a need for engineers to work with the United States Army Air Forces constructing air fields throughout the United States. He applied and was transferred to the Army Air Forces with the rank of lieutenant in Charlotte, North Carolina. After being transferred a couple of times and not enjoying his last duty as a mess officer, he applied for flight school and was accepted. He had an issue with his eyes, but the doctor gave him a treatment that took about a month to work. He attended flight schools in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; San Antonio, Texas at Randolph Field; and at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. Once completing all his flight instruction, he went to Avon Park, Florida and was assigned to a B-26 [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber] crew. He commented that crashing the plane was common.

Henry "Buck" Weaver volunteered to assign himself to a new station, not knowing what the details involved. He found out he was being sent to the ground forces replacement training command in Birmingham, Alabama. His duty was to fly infantry commanders on inspection trips for field training. He later applied for instrument training school, but his commanding officer did not recommend him because he thought Weaver was already proficient in that field. He flew various planes for different flights. He had a close call with colliding with another airplane while flying through Texas. They lost the rudder of the plane and had to emergency land. He was in Birmingham when the war in Europe ended and when the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped on Japan.

After the war ended, Henry "Buck" Weaver spent the next six months disposing of airplanes at the Ground Forces Replacement Training Command in Birmingham, Alabama. He had an acquaintance who was ill and sent to the hospital, and his friend wrote him a book of poetry. Weaver was discharged in January 1946. He signed up for the Reserves but was not called up for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: 1950 to 1953]. He stayed in Birmingham and found work in sales. He married and had two children. He was able to travel overseas later in life for work.