Gladwin Hill (June 16, 1914,Boston – September 19, 1992,Los Angeles) was an Americanjournalist who was a member of the famedWriting 69th, a group of reporters who trained and flew on bombing missions with theEighth Air Force during World War II.
Hill was an alumnus ofHarvard University.
As a member of the group of reporters who were known alternatively, as either theWriting 69th, the Legion of the Doomed, or the Flying Typewriters. Hill trained with theUnited StatesEighth Air Force. The training covered important topics such as high altitude adjustment, weapons, and parachuting. Hill worked for theAssociated Press from 1936–1944 and was the AP correspondent assigned to the bomber missions.
Hill flew his first and last bomber mission on February 26, 1943.[1] On that day, one of the planes was carrying reporterRobert Post. That plane was shot down and Post and eight Air Force personnel were killed. Hill described his participation in the mission in his article the next day: "It was thrilling. Yet at the same time it was strangely prosaic in the business-like efficiency with which it was executed."[2]
After World War II ended, Hill went to work for theNew York Times in their Los Angeles bureau. Hill worked there from 1946 to 1968.
OnNovember 22, 1963, Hill was dispatched to Dallas by theTimes in order to cover the events unfolding after the assassination of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. He voluntarily offered the FBI an interview about what he knew regardingJack Ruby shootingLee Harvey Oswald, which occurred while he was covering the transfer of Oswald into the police building. The interview basically determined when Hill heard the shot and that "immediately realizing what was happening he ran out of the police building through another exit to take up a position by the van".[3]
Hill also wrote books on environmental issues and politics.Madman In a Lifeboat: Issues of the Environmental Crisis (1973) provided imagery that persisted for decades regarding possible social dynamics during such a crisis.
Hill observed several nuclear explosion tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site. On November 1, 1951, unable to get official clearance to attend theOperation Buster-JangleDog nuclear test, Hill was onMount Charleston, a large mountain northwest ofLas Vegas, in order to view the explosion that would occur approximately 60 miles to the north of the mountain.[4]
After the explosion, Hill and the other assembled reporters realized the highlyradioactivemushroom cloud was moving south at a high speed, in their direction. Hill decided to descend the mountain and began driving down the twisting mountain road, but was unable to escape from the area before the cloud arrived. He wrote later about the experience. Realizing that the cloud was directly over him, "emphasizing its presence with a blast of static on my car radio",[5] Hill stopped and stepped out of the car to observe the passing of the cloud.
Later, inIndian Springs, an acquaintance with aGeiger counter measured more than 20milliroentgens per hour on some parts of his car.
Hill died fromlung cancer in 1992 at the age of 78.[6]
Radiation exposure orders of magnitude
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