Faye Keith Cookus was married 2x. As an adult he almost never included his first name on any document, simply listing his name as "Keith Cookus". He met his 1st wife, Donna Mozelle Blanton, while in flight training in northeast Texas. They were married ca 1943 in Durant, Bryan Co., OK. They had a son before they were divorced. By 1950 he was married to Mary B. and they were living in Albuquerque where he was stationed.
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Dallas (TX)Morning News, Monday,Jan 24,1944, Section I,p. 2
Amarillo (TX) Daily News, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p.9,
Greeley (CO) Daily Tribune, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 4
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 2
other U.S. papers coast-to-coast:
A U.S. Bomber Base in England, Jun 23 - Flak-torn and with three of its engines gone, the Liberator "Liberty Bell" crash-landed near a southeast England town after the Friday raids on the French coast and for three hours the pilot and four fellow-crewmen battled to save three others trapped in the blazing wreckage with the bodies of two death officers.
Thirteen men went out on the Liberty Bell. Eight rturned alive.
A half-dozen flak bursts struck her over Dieppe,starting afire in the bomb bay, igniting No. 3 engine and knocking out the controls of No. 1 and No. 2 engines.
Pilot Lt. Keith Cookus of Bonham, Tex., ordered the high explosive bomb load released. Bombardier Lt. Woodrow C. Cole of Hollywood, Calif., had to hang on to the bomb bay to release one bomb which had stuck because the catwalk was blown away.
The blazing engine exploded near the English coast and was still burning when at a 50-foot height Cookus veered to avoid hitting a house and the plane crashed into a field.
Trapped on the flight deck, but finally saved were the nose turret gunner, Sgt. Eugene K. Siefried, Philadelphia; Navigator Franklin A. Campbell, Detroit, and the top turret gunner, Sgt. Herman Becker, Woodbury, N.J.
"Despite the great danger they never uttered a complaint during the three hours we hacked at the wreckage," Cookus said. "High octane gas could have blow up, but they stayed calm--showed the greatest courage I have ever seen."
First to climb out of the plane were three gunners, including Sgt. Thomas Fong, Oakland, Calif. Cook and Co-Pilot Lt. Howard K. Halladay,Somerset, Ky., followed.
The gunners suffered superficial burns from flaming oil.
Cookus' mates told how he dug desperately with a shovel brought by a farmer to build up an earth wall to keep the fire in the engines from the trapped men and how he tried futilely to lift a section of the plane.
"We felt so helpless until a British fire engine arrived to put out the fire," Cookus said. "I would have gone crazy if the fire had spread to the boys. Once I was bawling there like a baby."
With axes and wreck-bars a hole was made in the wreckage to pull out the survivors and the two bodies.
Dallas (TX) Morning News,Sun., July 9, 1944, Section IV, p.5
Fightin' Men - BONHAM, Texas - Capt. Keith Cookus, whose wife resides here has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf Cluster, in addition to the air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He piloted a B-17 bomber for the eighth Air force on twenty-five missions and is now assigned with the allied tactical command.
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val Airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
Climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Military Information: LTC, US AIR FORCE
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Dallas (TX)Morning News, Monday,Jan 24,1944, Section I,p. 2
Amarillo (TX) Daily News, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p.9,
Greeley (CO) Daily Tribune, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 4
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 2
other U.S. papers coast-to-coast:
A U.S. Bomber Base in England, Jun 23 - Flak-torn and with three of its engines gone, the Liberator "Liberty Bell" crash-landed near a southeast England town after the Friday raids on the French coast and for three hours the pilot and four fellow-crewmen battled to save three others trapped in the blazing wreckage with the bodies of two death officers.
Thirteen men went out on the Liberty Bell. Eight rturned alive.
A half-dozen flak bursts struck her over Dieppe,starting afire in the bomb bay, igniting No. 3 engine and knocking out the controls of No. 1 and No. 2 engines.
Pilot Lt. Keith Cookus of Bonham, Tex., ordered the high explosive bomb load released. Bombardier Lt. Woodrow C. Cole of Hollywood, Calif., had to hang on to the bomb bay to release one bomb which had stuck because the catwalk was blown away.
The blazing engine exploded near the English coast and was still burning when at a 50-foot height Cookus veered to avoid hitting a house and the plane crashed into a field.
Trapped on the flight deck, but finally saved were the nose turret gunner, Sgt. Eugene K. Siefried, Philadelphia; Navigator Franklin A. Campbell, Detroit, and the top turret gunner, Sgt. Herman Becker, Woodbury, N.J.
"Despite the great danger they never uttered a complaint during the three hours we hacked at the wreckage," Cookus said. "High octane gas could have blow up, but they stayed calm--showed the greatest courage I have ever seen."
First to climb out of the plane were three gunners, including Sgt. Thomas Fong, Oakland, Calif. Cook and Co-Pilot Lt. Howard K. Halladay,Somerset, Ky., followed.
The gunners suffered superficial burns from flaming oil.
Cookus' mates told how he dug desperately with a shovel brought by a farmer to build up an earth wall to keep the fire in the engines from the trapped men and how he tried futilely to lift a section of the plane.
"We felt so helpless until a British fire engine arrived to put out the fire," Cookus said. "I would have gone crazy if the fire had spread to the boys. Once I was bawling there like a baby."
With axes and wreck-bars a hole was made in the wreckage to pull out the survivors and the two bodies.
Dallas (TX) Morning News,Sun., July 9, 1944, Section IV, p.5
Fightin' Men - BONHAM, Texas - Capt. Keith Cookus, whose wife resides here has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf Cluster, in addition to the air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He piloted a B-17 bomber for the eighth Air force on twenty-five missions and is now assigned with the allied tactical command.
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val Airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
Climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Military Information: LTC, US AIR FORCE
Faye Keith Cookus was married 2x. As an adult he almost never included his first name on any document, simply listing his name as "Keith Cookus". He met his 1st wife, Donna Mozelle Blanton, while in flight training in northeast Texas. They were married ca 1943 in Durant, Bryan Co., OK. They had a son before they were divorced. By 1950 he was married to Mary B. and they were living in Albuquerque where he was stationed.
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Dallas (TX)Morning News, Monday,Jan 24,1944, Section I,p. 2
Amarillo (TX) Daily News, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p.9,
Greeley (CO) Daily Tribune, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 4
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 2
other U.S. papers coast-to-coast:
A U.S. Bomber Base in England, Jun 23 - Flak-torn and with three of its engines gone, the Liberator "Liberty Bell" crash-landed near a southeast England town after the Friday raids on the French coast and for three hours the pilot and four fellow-crewmen battled to save three others trapped in the blazing wreckage with the bodies of two death officers.
Thirteen men went out on the Liberty Bell. Eight rturned alive.
A half-dozen flak bursts struck her over Dieppe,starting afire in the bomb bay, igniting No. 3 engine and knocking out the controls of No. 1 and No. 2 engines.
Pilot Lt. Keith Cookus of Bonham, Tex., ordered the high explosive bomb load released. Bombardier Lt. Woodrow C. Cole of Hollywood, Calif., had to hang on to the bomb bay to release one bomb which had stuck because the catwalk was blown away.
The blazing engine exploded near the English coast and was still burning when at a 50-foot height Cookus veered to avoid hitting a house and the plane crashed into a field.
Trapped on the flight deck, but finally saved were the nose turret gunner, Sgt. Eugene K. Siefried, Philadelphia; Navigator Franklin A. Campbell, Detroit, and the top turret gunner, Sgt. Herman Becker, Woodbury, N.J.
"Despite the great danger they never uttered a complaint during the three hours we hacked at the wreckage," Cookus said. "High octane gas could have blow up, but they stayed calm--showed the greatest courage I have ever seen."
First to climb out of the plane were three gunners, including Sgt. Thomas Fong, Oakland, Calif. Cook and Co-Pilot Lt. Howard K. Halladay,Somerset, Ky., followed.
The gunners suffered superficial burns from flaming oil.
Cookus' mates told how he dug desperately with a shovel brought by a farmer to build up an earth wall to keep the fire in the engines from the trapped men and how he tried futilely to lift a section of the plane.
"We felt so helpless until a British fire engine arrived to put out the fire," Cookus said. "I would have gone crazy if the fire had spread to the boys. Once I was bawling there like a baby."
With axes and wreck-bars a hole was made in the wreckage to pull out the survivors and the two bodies.
Dallas (TX) Morning News,Sun., July 9, 1944, Section IV, p.5
Fightin' Men - BONHAM, Texas - Capt. Keith Cookus, whose wife resides here has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf Cluster, in addition to the air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He piloted a B-17 bomber for the eighth Air force on twenty-five missions and is now assigned with the allied tactical command.
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val Airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
Climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Military Information: LTC, US AIR FORCE
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15 (extracted from Boone, Blanton & collateral families research records of Ruth Hasten Walsh)
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Dallas (TX)Morning News, Monday,Jan 24,1944, Section I,p. 2
Amarillo (TX) Daily News, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p.9,
Greeley (CO) Daily Tribune, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 4
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, Monday, Jan 24, 1944, p. 2
other U.S. papers coast-to-coast:
A U.S. Bomber Base in England, Jun 23 - Flak-torn and with three of its engines gone, the Liberator "Liberty Bell" crash-landed near a southeast England town after the Friday raids on the French coast and for three hours the pilot and four fellow-crewmen battled to save three others trapped in the blazing wreckage with the bodies of two death officers.
Thirteen men went out on the Liberty Bell. Eight rturned alive.
A half-dozen flak bursts struck her over Dieppe,starting afire in the bomb bay, igniting No. 3 engine and knocking out the controls of No. 1 and No. 2 engines.
Pilot Lt. Keith Cookus of Bonham, Tex., ordered the high explosive bomb load released. Bombardier Lt. Woodrow C. Cole of Hollywood, Calif., had to hang on to the bomb bay to release one bomb which had stuck because the catwalk was blown away.
The blazing engine exploded near the English coast and was still burning when at a 50-foot height Cookus veered to avoid hitting a house and the plane crashed into a field.
Trapped on the flight deck, but finally saved were the nose turret gunner, Sgt. Eugene K. Siefried, Philadelphia; Navigator Franklin A. Campbell, Detroit, and the top turret gunner, Sgt. Herman Becker, Woodbury, N.J.
"Despite the great danger they never uttered a complaint during the three hours we hacked at the wreckage," Cookus said. "High octane gas could have blow up, but they stayed calm--showed the greatest courage I have ever seen."
First to climb out of the plane were three gunners, including Sgt. Thomas Fong, Oakland, Calif. Cook and Co-Pilot Lt. Howard K. Halladay,Somerset, Ky., followed.
The gunners suffered superficial burns from flaming oil.
Cookus' mates told how he dug desperately with a shovel brought by a farmer to build up an earth wall to keep the fire in the engines from the trapped men and how he tried futilely to lift a section of the plane.
"We felt so helpless until a British fire engine arrived to put out the fire," Cookus said. "I would have gone crazy if the fire had spread to the boys. Once I was bawling there like a baby."
With axes and wreck-bars a hole was made in the wreckage to pull out the survivors and the two bodies.
Dallas (TX) Morning News,Sun., July 9, 1944, Section IV, p.5
Fightin' Men - BONHAM, Texas - Capt. Keith Cookus, whose wife resides here has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf Cluster, in addition to the air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He piloted a B-17 bomber for the eighth Air force on twenty-five missions and is now assigned with the allied tactical command.
Portland Oregonian Friday, September 8, 1978, p. 1
A seven-man rescue crew hiked into rugged mountain country in the McKenzie Pass Thursday night in an attempt to find a light aircraft believed to have crashed with four Salem residents aboard....Believed to be on board the missing plane are pilot Keith Cookus, 57; Dennis Taylor, 36; and Richard and Cindy Rudie, both in their 50s. All are from Salem.
"I'll say this", Mrs. Cookus, wife of the pilot, said Thursday night. "If there's four inches of space, he'll put that plane down. I've seen him do it."
Cookus is a flight instructor and chief pilot for Val Airways, Inc., which owns the missing aircraft. Mrs. Cookus said her husband has been flying for 40 years......
Portland Oregonian, Thursday, September 14, 1978, p. 15
Attempts to recover and remove four bodies from the high elevations of the North Sister were called off early Wednesday by the Lane County sheriff's office.
George Chortos, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said more inclement weather and snow blanketed the central Oregon mountain, and attempts to remove the bodies of four who died in a Sept. 7 plane crash have been called off indefinitely.
Climbers who reached the wreckage of the Piper Cherokee Warrior on Tuesday said the plane slammed into the mountain's rock face with great impact, and that no one could have survived the crash. The plane's fuselage is buried deep in the snow, and rescuers Tuesday could not get into the demolished aircraft to retrieve or identify the bodies....
Military Information: LTC, US AIR FORCE
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