Peter M. Busch

Born in 1934,^[2] Busch was a U. S. Marine Corps fighter pilot during the Vietnam War.^[2] He flew in about 400 missions during the war and was shot down once.^[2][4] Busch retired from the Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel in 1976,^[2] and moved to Lewiston, Idaho.

He ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 1984 and won the May primary,^[1][2] but was soundly defeated by two-term Republican incumbent Jim McClure in the November election,^[3] receiving just 26% of the vote.^[2] He moved from Lewiston to Caldwell in 1985 to run for Congress in the first district against incumbent Larry Craig.^[2][4]

On April 10, 1986, Busch was piloting his private airplane, a single-engine Piper Arrow, from Coeur d'Alene to a political event in eastern Idaho at Idaho Falls.^[2][4] Also aboard were his wife Charlene (42) and former state senator and Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Terry Reilly (39). The weather was rainy with heavy fog patches;^[2] shortly after 8 p.m. MST, the plane crashed into a hillside in Clark County near Dubois and all three were killed instantly.^[2][4][5] After their funeral in Lewiston on April 15, Busch and his wife were buried in Colton, Washington.^[4]