Richard J. Gross – VFW Post 8896

Richard J. Gross was born February 17, 1919 in York County. He graduated from East Berlin High School in May 1938. After his graduation he was employed in Hanover and later at the Middletown Air Force Base. At the start of WWII, he tried to enlist in the service twice before he was finally accepted. He was inducted in the Army Air Force in June 1942, at the New Cumberland Induction Center. He was sent to Kessler Field, Miss., for basic training and then to Sioux Falls Radio School and from there to Gunnery School at Harlington, Texas. He left the United States, June 1942 from San Francisco, and was sent to Port Moresby in New Guinea. He was shot down while flying a combat mission over New Guinea. He was acting as the radio operator-gunner on a B-24 Liberator Bomber when his plane was shot down by enemy ground fire. None of the crew survived. On September 8, 1943, he paid the Supreme Sacrifice for his country. The Richard J.Gross VFW Post was named in his honor.