Most-decorated Marine pilot dies at 89

CLACKAMAS (AP) — Retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, called the most decorated Marine aviator in history and was shot down in three wars, has died at age 89.

Reusser flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was shot down in all three, five times in all.

His 59 medals included two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit.

In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at a high altidude. When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.

In 1950 in Korea led an attack on a North Korean tank-repair facility at Inchon, then destroyed an oil tanker almost blowing himself out of the sky.

In Vietnam he flew helicopters and was leading a rescue mission when his Huey was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his badly burned body.

Reusser, who lived in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, was born Jan. 27, 1920, the son of a minister.

Reusser raced motorcycles to help pay for college and earning a pilots license before WWII.

After retiring from the Marine Corps he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp. He remained active in veterans groups.

Reusser died June 20 of natural causes. He is survived by his wife, Trudy; and sons, Richard C. and Kenneth L. Jr. Interment was Friday in Willamette National Cemetery.



http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2009/06/27/news/local/1loc16_reusser062809.txt

Dear Mom,

i've been reminded that both my ability to win at monopoly and desire not to litter come from the wonderful job my mother has done raising me.

.50 Cal

i figured i should put in a little info about the .50 cal to help explain the post below this one. the .50 cal is technically labled a "gianormous machine gun" (actually, it's official name is M2, pronounced Ma Duce). if you take the weapon and stand it up on it's end, it is almost as tall as i am. the full cartridge (the casing that holds the bullet, gunpowder and primer) is a little over 5 inches long. the name .50 cal comes from the size of the rounds it uses (.50 caliber), but i'm sure that means almost nothing to most of you. i don't know how caliber relates to inches (don?) and haven't done any messurements, but suffice it to say if someone gets hit with one of these rounds it doesn't matter if it happens while he's standing outside the worlds best emergency room, he'd be very lucky to come out whole.

i'm probably being a bit dramatic. just remember "gianormous machine gun."

My Motivator

as i've mentioned before, back in the old days of the "overseas contingency operation" iraqi civilians making use of an automobile were required to pull off to the side of the road when military convoys passed by. the reasoning was very simple and the same reasoning behind not letting people walk thru our formations. given terrorists tactics, they could go boom. and since vehicles have a lot of space to work with, it could turn into a big badda boom.

however, as i've mentioned before, according to the sofa agreement (you can call it sa if you want, but i don't have time for you to make up your mind on which name to settle for) iraqis are now allowed to drive beside this. but that doesn't mean i have to like it or respect it, (remember, big badda boom) or that iraqis have to trust it.

most still pull off the road when we come by. if we're going down a main highway with a divider of some sort between north and south bound traffic they can drive on the wrong side of the road to pass us and we don't much care. but we still frown upon iraqis driving right beside us.

anyways, (that was all setup to get to this point) a few days ago i was gunning a .50 cal on a MRAP. we were driving down a road with a civilian car in front of us. instead of speeding up to avoid us or pulling off the road, he simply slowed down and kept driving along the curb. i thought he was going to stop, but by the time my vehicle passed him (we were lead) he still hadn't stopped. to demonstrate my displeasure at his failure to stop, i spun my .50 cal (renamed my motivator) to the back to the MRAP pointing at his windshield. he quickly got the hint, pulled the rest of the way off the road and came to a complete stop.

something must have been wrong that day, cause about 20 mins later we were going down a different road and another vehicle decided he didn't want to stop, but this one was coming in the opposite dirrection. 3 other vehicles driving with him pulled off and stopped, but he kept coming. now, a car going in our same direction at a slow speed is probably nothing, but i still like to be cautious. a car coming at us with some speed is a problem, because if it is a vbied (vehicle borne imporvised explosive device, car bomb) we have very little time to react.

technically, at this point i have every right to open fire. i could have dumped 30 rounds into that car with a simple explination that i felt my life was in danger. however, things have been relatively quite lately and i'd feel pretty bad if i killed an innocent civilian just because he was being stupid. so instead i decided to give him a chance to prove his innocence. i once again swung my motivator into action, pointed directly at the drivers side of his windshield. it took about half a second for him to swerve off the road and come to a sudden stop.

maybe this could turn into a children's book. "My Motivator and Me." i'll have to take a break from working with trump, but i'm sure he'll understand.

The Fast-Dueling Property Trading Game

i participated in a little squad bonding, aka monopoly, last night. in case you're wondering, yeah, i dominated. grabed up all 3 light blues by my second run around the board and put up hotels the next turn. after that it was all over. someone should forward this to the trump so he can start considering my salary.

The Eye of the Tigris

for a river that claims 50% responsibility for the cradle of civilization, the tigris is kinda weak. it seems about the size of the Schuylkill river, but claims so much more importance. it should learn it's place.

Litterbug

i was out on patrol one day when we stopped at a house to talk to the man who lives there. i was at the side of the house pulling security with an IA and another man who lived at the house. like many times i go on patrol, i brought some candy with me for the kiddies. and, like many times i go on patrol, i decided to have some myself (some sugar is good when you're walking a while). anyways, i offered a piece to the IA and iraqi civilian as well, and they quickly unwrapped the candy, ate it, and threw the wrapper on the ground. with my American upbringing fighting the iraqi norm, i held the wrapper in my hand until the IA litterally took the wrapper out of my hand and dropped it, as they both laughed at me for being so silly. personally, i think greenpeace should be vocal supporters of this war.

Morale

in an effort at a little morale boost, the army brought the singer from a band to sing accoustic and a commedian who were both fairly famous about 10 years ago to perform. while they haven't been big for a few years, they were both still really good. pretty much everyone on the COP packed the dfac to listen to them.

but, just to make sure morale didn't get too high, the battalion commander and sergeant major came as well.

I Fired My Weapon Today

at a paper target. at a range. i'm still bored.

You Know It's Hot When...

your sweat mixes with floating sand to create mud in your helmet

135 Is On The Way

it's getting kinda hot around here. yesterday, my new fancy smancy thermometer said it was 117 degrees in the shade. unfortunetly i was in the sun. with my body armor on. pounding pickets into the ground. not fun. when i got back to the COP, someone said it looked like i had been swimming cause i was litterally soaked in sweat. not fun.

You're Getting Warmer

yeah, so the heat is starting to pick up now, and i was way off on my guess of the temp. 2 days ago i was told it was 107 degrees out. that's kinda hot. when i sit outside with my gear on i feel like the wicked witch of the west after a shower. yeah, i know, that's a long way to go for a metaphor, but my brain is melting.

Um, What?

as i've said before, i think, i'm learning some arabic from the IA's stationed at my COP. i know enough to make basic small talk and a few specific phrases, but a lot of it is hard. they make some weird sounds that i don't understand and don't seem to be able to do. it's kinda like rolling my R's with spanish, except half the language is like that. ba'aana'la'araa. it's some kind of gutteral sound i didn't think humans could make. maybe i just need to learn how to pronounce a comma.

Differences in Time

earlier today i was thinking about the first time i gunned for an MRAP. it was my second day at the COP and i was expecting an attack from everywhere. every oddly shapped rock was a marker for IEDs and everyone standing beside the road was preparing for an ambush. i thought of this as i gunned for an MRAP earlier today and my biggest concern was that we go fast enough to create enough wind to cool me down some.