I’ve seen a picture of the spot where he was hit my a mortar. It’s a McDonald’s parking lot.
After the war, Sgt Cross trained paratroopers how to jump and land - he was a gymnast in high school.
The army said he was too old - so he retired, and joined the smoke jumpers here in AZ! When they told him he was too old to fight fires, he then trained smoke jumpers until he was 70 years old.
He guesses he’s done thousands of jumps, and never so much as twisted an ankle, which he credits to his gymnastic skills.
With everything he’s done, I’d say he had the hand of God on his shoulder.