Leo L. MINER

MINER, MILLER, HORNING, SUCKOW

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/18/2009 at 12:09:12

Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, IA)
March 5, 2001

Leo L. "Red" Miner, 88, of 2122 Cherry Lane NE, died Saturday, March 3, 2001, in his home following a long illness. Services, with military honors: 11 a.m. Wednesday, First Lutheran Church, by the Rev. Kay Slocum. Entombment: Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery. Friends may call at Cedar Memorial Funeral Home from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and at the church after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Survivors include his wife, Vel; two sons, Timothy of Portland, Ore., and Lynn of Spokane, Wash.; and a daughter, Pamela Miller of Colorado. Also surviving are four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and two sisters. Leo was born Feb. 19, 1913, in Cedar Rapids, to Clifford and Grace Horning Miner. He married Velma Suckow on Nov. 27, 1971, in Postville, Iowa.

Leo's full career was based around aviation. He learned to fly in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1936 and operated the airport in Clarion, Iowa. Within six weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor he was instructing Army Air Corps cadets at the Spartan School of Aeronautics. After graduating 15 classes, he asked for active duty and was assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater, where he flew many cargo flights over the Himalayan Mountains, called "The Hump" in C-46 and C-47 Cargo planes. His experiences even led to a "ditching" of a C-47 in the sea off Formosa and to being rescued the following day. During World War II he was awarded from the Chinese honorary membership in the Chinese Air Force, the Chinese Air Medal and the Chinese Freedom Medal. Red retired from the military in 1946 and spent much of his remaining time flying charter and instructing students. He worked for the Collins Aero Research Lab and later was with the J-Tech Association as supervisor of The Model Shop. Many of the private pilots of the Cedar Rapids area were taught by "Red" Miner. Red was a member of First Lutheran Church and VFW Post 788, Hump Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association and the Quiet Birdmen. Military honors provided by VFW Post 788. Memorial contributions may be made to First Lutheran Church.