George Willard Cross

George was born on January 9th, 1925, in Dewey, Oklahoma. At the early age of four his parents divorced, he moved with his dad and stepmother to a farm in Lynwood, Iowa. Unfortunately, George and his younger brother Howard suffered parental abuse and ended up living in various foster homes until he reunited with their mother. These were the depression years, and he learned how to fend for himself and his brother. Despite the difficult early years, he was an outstanding gymnastic athlete in high school. At the age of 16, after a visit to his classroom by an Army Paratrooper, George and his best friend decided they wanted to become paratroopers also, so George left school to join the United States Army and became a paratrooper.

George completed basic infantry training at Camp Livingston, Louisiana, and paratrooper training at Fort Benning, GA. While at Ft. Benning, the Army decided to select him and five others to learn how to load gliders. George was not happy! He had joined the Army to be a paratrooper. After several discussions with his training sergeant, he was allowed to return to paratrooper training. Following training, he was off to Europe as a paratrooper and bazooka specialist where he served in the 456th and 303rd Battalions. On June 5th, George loaded up with his battalion as part of the 82nd Airborne and jumped behind enemy lines into pastures outside of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, France, with the command of "Don't let the Germans reach the beach!" Upon landing in the pastures and with his unit in complete disarray, he took charge of those unit members he could collect and proceeded to find and engage with the enemy. Due to his actions over the next few days, his group of stragglers ended up taking out several enemy positions, tanks, and capturing a large group of enemy troops. While advancing on Sainte-Mère-Eglise, George was in-charge of a team of 15 soldiers that was charged with a very dangerous job of going house to house to clear out German soldiers. George also participated in the largest military airborne operation in history, with 34,000 paratroopers from multiple countries, jumping in strategic locations in the Netherlands. George later found himself in combat in and engaged in the Battle of the Bulge to keep the Germans from reaching the oil fields in Antwerp, Belgium.

After the war, George was awarded his high school diploma and went to college. While doing his gymnastic workout, he was approached by a coach and asked if he wanted to teach at the University of Montana. He had recently married his first wife Jane, and soon they headed off to Montana where he built the University's Gymnastic program from the ground up. As if George had not already lived a full life, some of his students asked him to join them in jumping (skydiving). When asked, the students told him they jump into wildfires. George was shocked! However, he joined them and became a wildland smoke jumper for the next 26 summers. Other important highlights of George's life include having 3 children with Jane, a son Donovan, and two daughters, Debbie, and Carla. Unfortunately, Debbie passed away at 2 1/2 years old. George and Jane had been married for 22 years when Jane passed. George ended up getting remarried to Marietta who had 3 girls, Karen, Susie, and Mary and son Michael. Sadly, she passed away from cancer. As George neared his 90's he left Idaho and moved to Buckeye, Arizona to live with his son Donovan. Donovan, a Vietnam War Veteran himself, died of a combat related illness in 2021. George remained very active. George has also participated in the Senior Olympics in the javelin event. George was a Lifetime Member of the Festival Veterans Club at Sun City Festival, he was often seen at community events, and enjoyed dancing the boogie-woogie with the ladies. He also enjoyed meeting up with his friends at the local grille for a whiskey on ice.

It is clear that he is truly a part of America's greatest generation!

A visitation will be held at Surprise Funeral Care, 16063 W. Bell Rd, Surprise, AZ 85374, US, on September 16, 2026, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm.