Sunday, June 28, 2009

89 miles of guts

by Smitty (h/t The Corner)

God rest this fellow webfoot. The Democrat Herald reports the demise of retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser.
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.

At this point I refer you to a reply on another post, which applies even more to this man.

3 comments:

  1. I shake my head-the BEST like Col. Reusser-- die un-noticed and the deaths of people like M.Jackson are constantly being reported--hour after hour -day after day...
    Thank you for the heads up on a great man...
    C-CS

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  2. Flew his plane intothe Gook plane when his guns froze! That is *GUNG HO!* as we used to say in the "Old Corps".
    If you never wore the Globe and Anchor "Old Corps" is any Jarhead with more time than you! Like Me.

    an old exJarhead
    Cerritos, Cal

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  3. Reminds me of a scene from Blackhawk Down (I'm paraphrasing):

    SFC Hardasnails [to his driver]: C'mon, kid, get us the f**k outta here!

    CPL Cherry [nursing a bloody finger-stump, and looking a little green]: Uh, Sarge, I'm shot!

    SFC Hardasnails: We're ALL shot, dammit! Now DRIVE!

    ReplyDelete