Warbird Information Exchange

World War II bomber pilot is Museum of Aviation’s oldest volunteer

At the Museum of Aviation’s World War II Hangar on most any Wednesday afternoon, visitors don’t have to read the placards scattered about to learn history. They can hear it straight from a man who lived it.

Frank Cross, a World War II bomber pilot who turns 92 in January, is the museum’s oldest volunteer and has the record for most volunteer hours. He has worked more than 13,000 hours, and that’s not counting time he put in before the museum started keeping track.

He volunteered for the museum before it even existed, helping clear the land and constructing the first building. Besides flying planes in World War II and Korea, he was an aircraft mechanic.

He helped restore planes at the museum until he was 75. That’s when Peggy Young, the museum director at the time, called him up to the office.

“Peggy told me I was getting too old to be climbing around on planes,” he said. “She was afraid I would fall off.”

The museum then began dispatching him to give presentations to civic clubs. Someone else does that now, but he still makes his contribution by welcoming visitors at the World War II Hangar every Wednesday afternoon. He used to work three days a week, but his doctor had him cut back his schedule after he had heart surgery a few years ago.

Congratulations to Mr. Cross and hopefully someone has taken the time to document/record his stories!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

Flying Heritage Collection has a B-17 waist and tail gunner who survived 50 missions, he turned 90 last Nov. He wrote a book about his service, it's name is "The Shadow Casters" and his name is Art Unruh. The book is available on Amazon. Last summer he was giving a tour to a man who turned out to be the owner of an Italian watch co. and when he heard that Art flew his missions out of Foggia, Italy, he asked him if he had ever been back after the war and Art said no. In Sept. Art got an all expense paid trip to Foggia for a week.

The TSWM has a B-29 crewman that volunteers as a docent. He just missed seeing combat at the end of the war. There are a few other WWII vets that come in every weekend just to enjoy the museum. I do not know if they want to be identified, so I'll leave their names out.

What I really like about our displays is that they are for the most part about a specific veteran who has been associated with the museum. It changes the reaction people have so it is no longer, "Oh look, another display..." but instead, "Oh man, each and every man who fought this war was a real individual, not a faceless soldier." At least it does for me anyway.

Honored Veterans - Tri-State Warbird Museum

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Real-life heroes and historians like Mr. Cross are irreplaceable. I applaud his service to the museum, and his country.

A couple of months ago I was touring the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson. The docent on duty that day had flown B-24s in Europe ... I didn't want to leave the hangar! His stories, explanations of the aircraft, and the memories seen in the eyes, were the highlight of that trip out west!

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Ken Freeman
http://www.PlanesOfThePast.com ... A Tribute to the Great Aircraft of the Past
http://www.AirplaneBoneyards.com ... Military & Commercial Aircraft Boneyards, Past and Present
http://www.EnglandAirForceBase.com ... Memories of England AFB