Kuss, 32, died in a plane crash June 2 while he was training with his unit, the elite Blue Angels, for an airshow in Tennessee. He was a Durango native, graduating from Durango High School in 2002 and Fort Lewis College in 2006.
“Here’s a guy who is a legitimate hero to the whole state,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said Friday afternoon. “He went to Fort Lewis. They told him, ‘Well, we’re not sure that’s the right school if you want to be a pilot.’ He said, ‘I don’t care. I want to go to Fort Lewis. I want to be a pilot. I want to do both.’ The guy clearly had focus.”
Hickenlooper ordered flags at all public buildings statewide to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset Saturday to honor Kuss on the day of his service.
Kuss’ commanding officer, Cmdr. Ryan Bernacchi, lauded his fellow pilot at a short news conference late Friday afternoon.
“Jeff Kuss was, without a doubt, one of the finest Americans this country can produce,” he said. “Jeff was a product of Durango, he is Durango’s son.”
Earlier Friday, a chartered 737 brought in Marines and the members of the Blue Angels, including the honor guard that greeted Kuss’ arrival in the Blue Angels’ C-130 Hercules transport plane. Normally known as “Fat Albert,” the C-130 was rechristened No. 6, Kuss’ flight designation, for this week.
His mother, Janet Kuss, stood in a hatch at the top of No. 6 with a U.S. flag as the plane taxied to the apron. As the plane came to a stop, the pilots simultaneously stopped the four propellers in the same cross-shape.
The color guard stood at attention until the family left. Christina Ferrarese Kuss, the captain’s wife and who is also from Durango, took time to thank members of the color guard and the plane’s pilots for bringing her husband and her family home.
Jeff Perino, who is married to Christina Kuss’ sister Nicole, was one of several people wearing a blue wristband remembering Capt. Jeff “Kooch” Kuss and No. 6.
The arrival was purposefully kept small and low key. But that didn’t stop people from honoring their passage as they left the airport.
“As a veteran, I want to honor him if I can,” said Bobby Phillips, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He drove from Farmington to the main terminal at the airport and plans to return Saturday for the motorcade route. “As long as they have served their country, they deserve respect.”
Poles around the airport were decorated with blue and yellow ribbons – the colors of both the Blue Angels and Fort Lewis College – and American flags.
Periodically along the way, an individual or group stood silently by the road, including a group of veterans from Bayfield “with one Durangoan sprinkled in,” he said.
One more event has been added to the calendar of the weekend’s remembrances of Jeff Kuss – one that residents can participate in from home. Grammy-winning sound engineer Tom MacCluskey, 84, who was a Navy pilot and announced for the Blue Angels during the 1950s, will dedicate part of his Sunday morning Mostly Classical radio show from 9 a.m. to noon on KDUR-FM public radio (91.9 and 93.9) to Kuss, particularly during the 10 a.m. hour.
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