Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
World War II veteran Vassil W. Cross Jr. has some stories to tell.
Cross served in the 12th Air Force, 57th Bomb Wing, 321st Air Force Group during the war as a tail gunner on a B-25 Mitchell Bomber.
"We were supposed to fly 25 (missions), but they made me fly 50," Cross, 84, of Warsaw, said Thursday.
His first mission was Oct. 24, 1943, in Albania.
"You're just scared all the time," he said of his first mission. "You hear that flak cap busting all the time and it'd scare you to death. You couldn't do anything about it. And then you got the clear and it felt real good. 'Cause when the pilot turned it over to the bombardier, the bombardier more or less ran the plane until you got through the mission.
"The pilot was a 21-year-old kid, a real pink-cheek guy. I looked at him and said, 'Brother, we've got to fly with you?' He could do anything with that plane."
Cross was the oldest of the crew. "They called me 'Pop.' I was the oldest man on the crew, I was 26 years old. The rest of them were around 20, 21."
On the plane with Staff Sgt. Cross were First Lt. Dana Wetherbee Jr., First Lt. Claude M. Crider, First Lt. Francis O'Toole, Tech. Sgt. Louis Stein and Staff Sgt. Leo J. Beaudware. They met and were assigned to fly together in June 1943 at Columbia Army Air Base, S.C.. Their story was used as war propaganda to encourage U.S. men to enlist in the service, something Cross said he is very proud of. He has a copy of the story, even after 60 years.
Other missions Cross flew were in Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria.
He was born Aug. 26, 1916, in Kokomo. He entered the Air Force in 1943.
"I enlisted. My brother was already in the Air Force and I thought I'd like it," he said of why he enlisted. "The only part was, I was trained to be a crew chief, work on the planes. I never picked up a wrench after all that school. I got overseas and the Germans were coming in from the rear so they made tail gunners out of us."
It wasn't something he was exactly ready for either, he said.
"You couldn't even put your parachute on. You laid on your belly and had to run about 10 feet to put your parachute on if something happened to you," Cross said. "So I didn't care too much for that. And later on, they ... kept making (the plane) better all the time. They fixed it so you could just push a button and the whole section would come off from the tail. You'd be in the clear."
Cross said he had at least one close call while in the bomber.
"We got done once - we always checked our planes - and we found a hole in our plane and I thought that was pretty close to where I was laying," he said. "I got to looking in there and it tore a piece out of my pants leg but it didn't hit my skin. That was pretty close. All you're doing is laying on a piece of armor plate on your belly."
Even after he flew 50 missions, Cross said, the Air Force wanted him to fly more, but Cross was allowed to refuse. A friend of his, Charles Godwin, didn't refuse.
"I had a buddy of mine got shot down on his 51st. They tried to talk us into going farther. That's the only two things in the service you can do without getting court-martialed - refuse to fly or refuse to go down in the submarine," said Cross. "And so I said, 'I'm done.' (My friend) got shot down in his 51st mission. I never found anything out about him. He was from Kokomo."
He said Godwin was bombing a monastery the Germans were using as a stronghold when he was shot down. The monastery was on Abbey Hill above Cassino in Italy. He said the monastery had to be blown up because every time the Allies tried to do something, the Germans would "blow them up."
While in the service, Cross met his wife, Evelyn, who died about six years ago.
Cross said, "I met my wife in the service. We met in Seymour, Ind. We got married. She had wanted to come overseas but when we got married, they wouldn't take her. They wouldn't send her. She stayed. I lost her six years ago. I even got her shells from her burial and the flag. She was a control tower operator (in the Air Force during the war). We had 50 good years together anyhow."
When not flying a mission during the war, Cross said, "We just lived in those six-man tents and heated them with airplane gasoline." They also got some rest and relaxation time approximately every six months.
Cross' last mission was April 18, 1944, over Orvieto Railroad Bridge South, Italy.
After finishing his 50th mission, he was eventually shipped back to the United States and put in the military police. "The only trouble was, they put me in the MPs, back in World War II, the MPs were lousy. Not today," Cross said. "But we didn't like that too much, but we were still living."
On how he found out the war was over, he said, "That kind of stuff you watched all the time. News, papers. They had a big parade and everyone got crocked. ... Everyone wondered where the whiskey went during World War II - it went to the Air Force."
After the war, Cross went home to Seymour and went to work with his father at the family's meat packing business. His brother, Harold Cross, also returned from the war and worked at the meat packing business along with two other Cross brothers who did not fight in the war.
Cross received the Air Force Medal for flying 50 missions and the Good Conduct Medal.
"A lot of people used to laugh at that (Good Conduct Medal)," said Cross, "but if you were a good soldier, you got one of those."
Though he made attempts, Cross said, he was never able to find any of the other men he served with during World War II.
Cross keeps a lot of souvenirs, not only from the war but also from the pre- and post-World War II eras.
"I get this (box) out every once in a while and go through it," said Cross. "It's kind of fun."
He has a copy (dated June 6, 1944) of "The Stars & Stripes," a military newspaper.
"We used to look forward to this paper," Cross said.
He has a Bible given to him in 1926 from his school for perfect attendance; he took the Bible with him when he went off to war. He has a pack of Phillip Morris & Co. English cigarettes from 1943 that have never been opened. He also has postcards dated as far back as 1911, American and Jerusalem newspaper clippings and photos.
Of his time in the war, Cross said, "I just wouldn't trade it for anything. I wouldn't want to do it over again, but I kind of enjoyed it anyhow because we got to see a lot of different things."
