Friends mourn Milwaukie fighter pilot who served in three wars

CLACKAMAS -- They came by ones and twos Friday, quietly slipping into the pews at New Hope Community Church. They smiled at the words honoring a man whose faith made him an inspiration and whose exploits in three wars made him a hero.

And when the last mournful drone of the bagpipes faded, they said goodbye to Col. Kenneth L. Reusser of Milwaukie, the most decorated U.S. Marine Corps aviator in history.

"He was the finest gentleman I've ever met," said Harley Wedel of Fairview, a fellow Korean War veteran. "I'm really going to miss him."

Reusser flew an amazing 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He was shot down in all three wars -- five times in all. He earned two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit among his 59 medals.

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

In 1950, while serving in the storied "Black Sheep Squadron," he 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 the process.

During the Vietnam War, Reusser flew helicopters. He was leading a Marine Air Group in a rescue mission, when his own "Huey" was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his badly burned body.

Reusser was born Jan. 27, 1920, the son of a Cloverdale minister. While still a teenager, he became a committed Christian, which remained a big part of his life.

Reusser lived a "Tom Sawyer-ish" existence, Wedel said, jumping off a barn roof to test a parachute, racing motorcycles to help pay for college and earning a pilot's license before WWII broke out.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp.

"He had a great sense of humor," said friend Jesse Lott of Milwaukie. "One time, when the great Gen. Chuck Yeager was visiting, we told him about Ken's war record. Yeager just sniffed that he never saw any Marines in Europe.

"Well, when Ken arrived, we told him what Yeager had said," Lott said. "So Ken said, 'Well, if we had been there, it wouldn't have taken you so long to win the war.' Even Yeager laughed."

Reusser, who died June 20 of natural causes at 89, is survived by his wife, Trudy; and sons, Richard C. and Kenneth L. Jr. Interment was in Willamette National Cemetery.

VMF-312 Corsair

Kenneth Reusser, 1920 - 2009
by Mike Francis, The Oregonian June 26, 2009

The funeral for Ken Reusser, a legendary Marine aviator is taking place in Clackamas as I type this. Apologies for not finding out about this sooner.

Reusser is a much-decorated pilot who received the Navy Cross for his actions in World War II. In a dramatic counter-kamikaze mission, he and his copilot tracked down a Japanese surveillance aircraft that was providing information to suicide pilots, chasing it through skies so cold that their guns froze up. They used their Corsair's propellers to slice through the tail of the reconnaisance plane.

He served in the Pacific Theater in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He was awarded a second Navy Cross, five Purple Hearts and multiple other medals before being forced to retire because of his wounds.

Sadly, late in his life, Reusser and his wife Trudy were in the news for refusing to leave their Aloha house, which was foreclosed upon after they lost their life savings, partly through a swindle.

WAR HERO'S LAST BATTLE FOR HOME, RESPECT
Exactly who is Ken Reusser? Simply one more senior citizen suffering from bad decisions, or an epic hero who refuses to quit?

The decorated Marine colonel and his wife have been told to leave their Cooper Mountain home on land his grandfather settled because they are unable to make payments. Already evicted, they returned during the weekend and changed the locks, making themselves among Oregon's most well-known squatters.

Right or wrong, Reusser's stubborn refusal to give up on what's important to him is a telling chapter in a real-life screenplay about yesterday's heroes.

1945: Marine Capt. Reusser, flying a Corsair F4U-4 fighter over the Pacific, spots a Japanese Kawasaki "Dragon Killer" at about 40,000 feet. The enemy camera plane is recording preparations for the U.S. invasion of Japan.

Reusser and his wingman climb high enough to hit the plane with machine gun fire, forcing it to lose altitude.

As the enemy drops to 38,000 feet, Reusser gets ready to put an end to this 150-mile chase, but he discovers the cold has jammed his guns.

Gently, he closes on the tail of the fleeing Kawasaki and uses the Corsair's giant propeller to chew away the trailing edge of the enemy plane's tail. He moves next to the limping plane as his wingman finishes the job, sending the plane to the ocean.

They limp back to Okinawa, landing on the dregs in their fuel tanks, with damaged propellers.

Reusser, 84, says he lost $262,500 in a bad investment three years ago. It wasn't his last bad decision.

He hired Robert E. Thomas to handle his finances, but Reusser says Thomas stole more than $80,000. Thomas was convicted and ordered to repay $200 a month. Reusser will have to live to be nearly 120 to get all his money back.

The couple filed for bankruptcy in August. Broke, they are acting as their own attorney to sue the bank for $1 million, saying it should not have cashed bad checks. The bank says Reusser should be more careful about who he allows in his checkbook.

But Reusser seldom plays it safe.

1950: He's a major now, still flying the Corsair, but in a different war, leading a division from the famous "Black Sheep," flying over Inchon, Korea, from the deck of USS Sicily.

Reusser leads an attack against a North Korean vehicle park and factory, but the ferocity of the defense arouses his suspicions.

According to "Leatherneck Magazine," he "set his Corsair snarling past the large factory building barely above the ground and close enough to actually look in the windows." It was packed with Soviet-made tanks.

He flies to the Sicily to rearm and refuel, then returns, setting the factory ablaze with rockets and napalm.

He leads a low-level strike on oil storage tanks until all of his rockets and napalm are gone, then sets his sights on a camouflaged oil tanker at Inchon harbor, diving to mast height and raking the tanker with 20 mm gunfire. The tanker explodes, almost blowing Reusser's Corsair out of the air.

He retired as a Marine colonel after 28 years, with two Navy Crosses for valor -- second only to the Medal of Honor -- plus five Purple Hearts for injuries in battle, and 42 other decorations.

The veteran of three wars -- he also flew in Vietnam -- remains one of the most decorated pilots in the history of the Marine Corps. In a world simply tired of violence and war, Reusser's heroics continue to inspire awe more than a half-century later.

For those who don't know who he is and what he has done, it would be all too easy to point to his mistakes and consider the colonel just another crusty, troublesome senior citizen who can't take care of himself.

But he deserves better than to be left impoverished, homeless and humbled.

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