Lt. Colonel Jim Gross earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during the Vietnam War. He was
part of an army brigade that included seven Air Force pilots who were forward air controllers.
Two of his fellow pilots were killed in action. In the middle of the night, Jim received
communication that an army patrol was pinned down by the Vietnamese. They were calling for
help. Jim called in artillery, and also for flare planes to drop flares that would light up the area.
He requested fighter bombers to strafe the area where the Viet Cong were located. He went
back to land the aircraft at their base after a successful mission, which was an abandoned
rubber plantation with a dirt strip for a runway. There were no lights, so the men on the ground
had to drive a jeep to the end of the runway and turn the headlights on so Jim could see where to
land his plane.
After receiving the honor of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Jim supported the war by running
cargo from California to Hawaii to the Pacific islands. He would have two weeks off, then do
another run of cargo, which took multiple weeks to complete. When the war was over, he joined
the Air Force Reserves and rejoined his wife, Marilyn Merriam, and four children, Noel, Eric,
Aurora and Rebecca.
JIm received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Arizona State University as part of the
Boot Strap Program, and was a flying instructor for the Air Force during that time. He was
infamous for taking rookies up in the plane and then doing a split S maneuver to make them
pass out. After completing and passing his exams for his Bachelors degree, which he completed
with honors, he went to work for IBM in New York, and joined a reserve unit in Newburgh, New
York. In addition to his honorable and distinguished service in the USAF, he was renowned in the
officers club for his chess playing abilities. The local paper in Newburgh published an article
about Jim, who played chess blindfolded against multiple officers and won every game.
Later Jim moved his family to Texas, where he went to work for LTV Corporation in their
programming department for electrical systems. His love of flight influenced his career move to
Braniff Airlines, and then TWA Airlines as a Systems Analyst. These jobs allowed him to travel
to places like Eygpt and Hawaii, and to continue to broaden his experience of new peoples and
places. During this time, Jim also got a divorce, remarried, and had another son, Jason. He lost
his second wife, Elizabeth, to cancer, but as an eternal optimist, at 77 is engaged to be married
to Gail Harris. For fun, Jim likes to do abstract math, plays bridge and golf competitively, and is a
published astrologer.