Morrison Auther Cotner was born in May 1925 in Booneville, Arkansas, one of six children of Harrison and Mrytle. The family lived on a farm during the Great Depression and lost all their money during a bank closure. Cotner’s mother died when he was eight and his father died when he was fourteen. He lived with relatives and enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve in July 1942 when he was 17 years old. He served on on the USS Castor and then the USS Awahou during World War II, where he suffered burns when this ship was performing vital cargo-carrying service between Guadalcanal and other islands.

Morrison Cotner graduated from the University of Arkansas with a B.A. in 1951, where he joined the Army ROTC program. He was in the U.S. Army Reserve and was about to be recalled to regular duty in Korea when he resigned in March 1952 to join the U.S. Air Force.  After flight training in Texas, he became a qualified Air Force pilot, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in March 1953, and flew jets in Korea from July 1953 to June 1954.

Cotner married Gene Marie Slanker in Hermosa Beach on January 1955. They had four children and he earned an engineering degree at Oklahoma State University in 1960. They returned to the area and bought a home in Torrance, where he was attached to the Air Force station in El Segundo but worked at the North American Aviation.  

As the Vietnam war dragged on and a shortage of pilots arose, even though he had already been in two wars, Morrison Cotner served his country yet again. He received his Air Force Reserve orders for duty in Vietnam, and the whole family moved to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to be with him while he trained to be a Forward Air Controller in the summer of 1966. He was in the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron and was attached to the 9th Republic of Korea Army Infantry Division as an Air Liaison Officer of the 28th Regiment. 

Major Cotner was the leader of a flight of O-1 “Bird Dog” fliers, the pilots who direct artillery fire and airstrikes of the fast moving jets. On April 28, 1967, he was flying a small observational plane 50 feet above the ground looking for enemy caves when he was killed in action when his aircraft was shot down by hostile machine gun fire. Major Morrison Cotner received many awards, including posthumously the Hwarang Order of Military Merit (South Korea) for gallantry for supporting ROK troops in Vietnam. He was buried at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes with full military honors.

*Thank you to the Cotner family for providing much of the information listed above.