WWII Combat Vet and Lifelong Ogden Resident Celebrates 102nd Birthday

OGDEN — For George Ford, age truly is just a state of mind.
The lifelong Ogden resident turned 102 on Nov. 3.
Since his wife, Lorraine, died more than 20 years ago, he’s lived alone — in the same east-central home he built mostly by himself in the early 1950s. He still has a full head of hair, he still drives, he exercises daily and he does his own yard work.“I guess I have pretty good longevity,” Ford says humbly, attributing his durability mostly to genetics. “My dad was 92 and I had a brother who was 98. But I do about 12 to 15 exercises every day, so maybe that helps.”But whether it’s his genes, his active lifestyle or a combination of both, Ford’s 10-plus decades on Earth could have easily been cut short before he hit 30.Ford is a decorated combat veteran of World War II. He joined the Army Air Force on July 23, 1943. After several training stints around the United States, he eventually found himself stationed in Europe, working as a radio radar technician in a B-17 Bomber.“I was trained for B-24 Bombers,” Ford said. “We took the Queen Elizabeth across the Atlantic Ocean and it took us five days to cross because we had to avoid the U-boats. Well, when I got (to Europe), they switched us over to the B-17.”Ford was part of 25 bombing missions over Germany during the war. On one of the missions, his navigator died in the middle of the flight after something went wrong with his oxygen supply.“It was over Nuremberg and we were at about 25,000 (feet),” Ford recalls. “And that was the only time I ever actually used the radar. I had to radar into the tower to get permission to land in France. But we never could find an air field and had to fly all the way back to England.”On another mission, while participating in a large-scale raid over Berlin, Ford’s B-17 was hit in the right wing by an anti-aircraft missile.“We thought we were going down,” he said. “That was the only time I ever clipped on my parachute. When you realize, ‘Well, we’re gonna have to bail,’ it’s pretty frightening.”Miraculously, Ford says, the plane kept flying and made it back to England. The plane slid off the runway, Ford says, and into a large gravel pit. He counted 200 holes in the plane after he got out.In 1945, Ford participated in humanitarian food drops over the Netherlands. At the time, the western portion of the region was still under German control and some 3 million Dutch were at risk of starvation. Ford flew on four food drop runs. In 1985, he was invited by Holland to attend a 40th anniversary celebration for the humanitarian missions. The country awarded Ford with the Medal of Liberation.Ford was awarded a Medal of Honor from France and Air Medals and Major Battle Stars from the United States.When he reflects back on his service, he fondly remembers how united the country was back then.“As far as World War II, it was special insofar as the participation here in the U.S. was all out,” he said. “As a country, we haven’t had an effort that was so complete before or since.”