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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Russell E. Dougherty (Ret.)

A resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (PA) is the senior surviving member of the well-known GROSS family of Pennsylvania. Jack Gross was born in Gratz, PA, educated at Lafayette University, and became a World War II officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces, serving as the executive officer of the 86th Fighter Group (P-47s/P-51s) as a part of the 12th Air Force and the 1st Tactical Air Force in the Mediterranean. Later he served in the 9th Air Force in the European campaign. In two years of combat his Group earned seven battle stars, flew 3625 missions, comprised of 28,550 sorties; they damaged or destroyed 1,114 locomotives, 10,420 railcars, 515 enemy planes, and 9860 motor transports. Sixty one members of his group lost their lives in combat and over 60 were missing in action. The Group received three Group citations: the Rome-Arno Campaign; the Allied attacks on Monte Belmonte/Monte Grande in Italy; and the Southern Germany offensive in the central European Theater.
Col. Gross returned to Harrisburg where he became extremely involved and active in the military affairs of the area and took a leading role in numerous Air Force and Army activities in his state and the nation. He was a national officer of the Air Force Association for thirty years, and was chairman of the Board of Directors in the 1970s. He is a noted philanthropist and his charitable actions are numerous and widespread throughout the Army and the Air Force.