George Thomas Garrison

Dover George Thomas Garrison, 103 George Thomas Garrison passed away Sunday Aug. 22, 2021, George was born in Cheswold DE Aug. 17, 1918 to the late Roland E. and Clara H. Garrison. George's dream was to fly an airplane. He knew this by the time he was ten years old. That is all he could think about was flying a plane when he got older. In high school he was in a flying club and got a little time in a small plane until one of the other students crashed the only plane the club had. After graduation from Dover High School in 1937 George's desire to fly was even stronger. George started helping the owner of Dover Airport which was on Rt 13 where the CVS drug store is now. George started helping the owner of the airport fueling the planes and doing work on the planes. He only had to pay the owner $5 a day to work for him. It was a good deal because George could take a plane up and fly around the area to test out a plane he worked on. He got all of his hours for his license by the time he finished working on the farm for his father and for his airport part time. On March of 1941 George joined the Army Air Corps and started to get his training for working on the big planes. He barely finished his training when World War II broke out. During the war he did most of his service in the South Pacific theater. He did some time in Australia and New Guonea. He also traveled around the entire world in different planes. He traveled on planes, trains and the Queen Mary to get to his next assignment. George said he was on the Queen Mary for a month and all the food was bad for the troops on board except for officers on board, who ate a lot of steak while George and the other men were served rotting mutton. George was trained as a mechanic but when he was on board he always found a way to talk the pilot into letting him take controls of the B-17 or B-24. Some of the pilots knew George was such a good pilot that they had nothing to worry about. George finished up his service career as an inspector at the Air Force base in Dover at the end of 1945-1946. He lived in NYC for a short amount of time and then returned to the family farm to work until he retired when he was 65. George wasn't going to give up flying after the war. He purchase several small planes over the years. he had a runway on the family farm with a hanger to store his plane from the weather. There were so many small airports around Dover that he had some fun flying to all of them plus other states for something to do that he enjoyed each week. George had a deep faith in the Lord. It was what brought him back from the war and the many near death events in his life. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two brothers, Elbert W. Garrison and Gamaiiel E. Garrison and Mary G. Wilson. He was beloved uncle to his nephews and nieces who are Robert K. Garrison of Dover, Teena W. McCoy of Dover and Thomas R. Garrison of Smyrna, Charles G. Garrison (Efser) of Dover, Ray Wilson (Karen), of Cumberland, Maine, Roy J. Wilson (Ann) of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, David A Garrison, of Austin, Texas, Florence M. Garrison of Dover and Mark J. Garrison (Heidi) of Harrington. He also had numerous grandnephews and nieces, and great-grandnephews and grandnephews and nieces. Letters of condolences may be sent to www.traderfh.com

George Thomas Garrison

August 17, 1918 - August 22, 2021