Kenneth Reusser; shot down 5 times in 253 combat missions
LOS ANGELES - Retired Marine Colonel Kenneth Reusser, who flew 253 combat missions in three wars and was shot down five times, died June 20 in Clackamas, Ore. He was 89.
The cause of death was not announced.
Colonel Reusser received two Navy Cross medals, one for combat during the battle for Okinawa late in World War II and another for leading a raid over Korea in 1950 in which he flew at a low altitude to look inside enemy buildings.
In Vietnam he flew helicopters, and while on a rescue mission to find downed crewmen, he was shot down, suffering burns over one-third of his body. His injuries forced his medical retirement in 1968 after 27 years of service.
Retired Marine Major General Bob Butcher, chairman of the Flying Leathernecks Historical Foundation and Aviation Museum in San Diego, said Marines who flew with Colonel Reusser regarded him as the bravest man they had met.
“He was an incredible hero,’’ Butcher said.
Born Jan. 27, 1920, in Cloverdale, Ore., Kenneth Reusser was the son of a Christian minister. He entered motorcycle racing contests to earn money for college and enlisted in the Navy Reserve in August 1941. He was soon sent to aviation training.
His first combat was during the battle for Guadalcanal in 1942. Later he was part of the famed Black Sheep squadron headed by the now-legendary Gregory “Pappy’’ Boyington, a Medal of Honor recipient.
During one mission, Colonel Reusser was assigned to attack a Japanese reconnaissance plane that was gathering intelligence on the location of US forces. He followed the Japanese plane at altitudes that his F4 U-4 Corsair was not made to withstand. When his guns froze, Colonel Reusser used his plane’s propellers to rip through the Japanese plane’s tail section, sending it crashing to the sea.
In 1950, he led missions to destroy enemy facilities in Inchon. The citation for his Navy Cross notes:
“Reusser led his flight in a strafing attack against a hostile factory, destroying several vehicles and 30 of the enemy in a truck despite intense and accurate hostile anti-aircraft fire.
“Suspecting that the strong defenses protected vehicles of war, he ordered his flight to orbit the target at 3,000 feet while he investigated the factory at window-level and, on his second pass, made in the face of automatic fire coming from the windows, discovered that the factory was a vehicle and tank assembly plant.’’
Colonel Reusser flew back to the aircraft carrier and then returned to the site with rockets and napalm, destroying the target.
He flew at such a low altitude that the explosion from an oil tanker nearly blew his plane from the sky.
After his retirement, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft, where he helped develop the U-2 spy plane, and then Piasecki Helicopter Co. Retiring to his native Oregon, he was active in veterans groups.
In addition to his wife, Trudy, Colonel Reusser leaves two sons, Richard C. and Kenneth L. Jr. 