Major Kurt “Smoke” Mason

David Steele gatorsteele@comcast.net

Major Kurt “Smoke” Mason USMC(Ret) passed away Thursday night January 28th.

Services will be at Evergreen Cemetery at 4505 Broadway, Everett WA 98203 on Sat 6 Feb at 1pm.

Friends are encouraged to speak and are also requested to provide a printed copy of their remarks for the family memory book.

The family requests donations to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in lieu of flowers.

Smoke was one of a kind. I knew him for over 52 years having first met him when we were NAVCADS. He came across as a curmudgeon even then (but it was all an act – he had a heart as big as all outdoors). We wound up in the same squadron (HMR(L) – 261 in New River and went overseas together in that unit. When we returned we again were in the same squadron (HMM-362) transitioning jet jocks to helos – what fun we had with those guys. After that, I went over to the dark side and few jets while Kurt stayed loyal. We saw each other every few years and it was like we had seen each other just the day before. When I moved to the Seattle area in ’95, I hadn’t seen Kurt more than twice in many, many years but, not to worry, he took me under his wing and showed me around the area like we were brothers.

I will be forever thankful that I had the opportunity to partner with Kurt in the building of a Baby Belle kit helo – what I learned during the five years we built and flew that little machine was priceless – Kurt was a master teacher of much more than just airframes and power-plants. He was well known and loved by so many people in this area and he will be greatly missed.

Dave Steele

Re: Kurt "Smoke" Mason

Having just returned from a visit to the US, where I called in at the Museum of Flight Restoration Center at Everett/Paine Field, WA. There was a display case inside the facility dedicated to Kurt Mason, showing several artifacts from his time as a AH-1 pilot in Vietnam during 1969, with I belive HMM-362.