Modern War Heroes

Another account on CNN.com of an inspiring woman named Lori Piestewa serving in our military in Iraq. She lost her life defending her convoy during an ambush.

The soldier, a mother of two believed to be the first American Indian woman ever killed in combat, was the pride of the Hopi Indians living in Tuba City, Arizona. In this tightknit town of 9,000, the unseasonable (snow) flurry signified Piestewa’s spiritual journey home.

“In the Hopi belief, when one is deceased, they come back home. They visit the family, their community through the moisture,” Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor told reporters after the snowfall. “And this is what happened just a while ago. So I think we were blessed today.”

Here it is not even 8:30 in the morning and I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed with patriotic pride. I just ran across this article (www.oregonlive.com) that was posted last Sat. (June 27th) describing an amazing man from Milwaukee named Kenneth Reusser. This man participated in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam flying an incredible 253 missions in the Marine Corps. Here’s a quote from the article describing some of his heroic actions.

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.

All I could say was, “Wow!” while I was reading this article. After retiring from the military, Reusser went on to work with Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp. He passed away the 20th of June at the incredible age of 89.