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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Kevin Crosby

2nd Lieutenant Ralph Crosby, United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)

Ralph Crosby grew up in a small town in south Mississippi. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Pearl River Jr. College in Poplarville, Mississippi because it had a good Junior ROTC program. The ROTC training was for the Infantry, and since WW II had started, he knew it was just a matter of time before he would be called up to serve. However, he soon discovered that Infantry training was not what he wanted to do, and upon graduating from Pearl River, he entered Louisiana State University, where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. He then enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) for pilot training in August 1942. In June 1944, he graduated from pilot training as a 2nd Lieutenant. During his time in the United States Army Air Corps, Lieutenant Crosby piloted both the Boeing B-17 and the B-29 bomber aircraft. However, he was never deployed overseas.

In the fall of 1945, just two weeks before he was to be promoted to 1st Lieutenant, Ralph was discharged from the military. While still in the service, Lieutenant Crosby earned a commercial pilot's license for single and multi-engine planes, and his love for flying never wavered until his death in June of 2012. Sadly, he never got a chance to pilot after his separation from the Army Air Corps because he thought it too expensive to fly privately.