The Writing 69th: The Training

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The Training

The men of the Writing 69th spent the better part of a week in a training session, learning how to adjust to high-altitude flying. The photograph below shows a classroom session during the training.

Paul Manning is at the lower left of the photograph with the black armband; Gladwin Hill is seated next to Manning; Bob Post is directly behind Manning with William Wade and Walter Cronkite to his right; and Andy Rooney is behind Cronkite; Denton Scott and Homer Bigart are harder to identify, Scott is probably next to Hill and Bigart next to Rooney. The movie director William Wyler, who directed the film The Memphis Belle, is behind Rooney. Photograph courtesy of the 92nd Bomb Group, 1/11 CCRC Memorial Corporation (Richie Collection)

At some point around that time, a logo was designed for the Writing 69th. It is similar in design to the 8th Air Force logo, but includes the phrase "Writing 69th".