William Wade (journalist)
Encyclopedia
William Warren Wade was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 war correspondent during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He was a member of an eight man team of journalists who flew bombing missions over Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 with the U.S. Air Force while he was working for the International News Service
International News Service
International News Service was a U.S.-based news agency founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.Established two years after the Scripps family founded the United Press Association, INS scrapped among the newswires...

.

Early life

Wade was born in Manhattan, son of a printer. At an early age he took an interest in the news. He took a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 delivery job as a young boy and by the time he was 16 he wrote unpaid articles for the Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...

 newspaper covering sports. He attended journalism school
Journalism school
A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. An increasingly used term for a journalism department, school or college is 'J-School'...

 at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

. He worked as the copy desk chief at the Minnesota Daily
Minnesota Daily
The Minnesota Daily is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, published Monday-Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is one of the largest student-run and student-written newspapers...

from 1936-1939. After graduated college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 in 1939 he went to work for the Hearst News Service in New York and later in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. In 1941 he landed a job at the International News Service
International News Service
International News Service was a U.S.-based news agency founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.Established two years after the Scripps family founded the United Press Association, INS scrapped among the newswires...

 (INS) in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and was immediately assigned to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 for nine months.

The Writing 69th

Wade, along with seven other reporters, trained with and planned on flying bombing missions with the Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....

. That, however, was not necessarily in the cards. The Writing 69th trained with the Air Force for a week before the first mission, learning skills such as parachuting, adjustment to high-altitudes and weapons. The day of the first mission Feb. 26, 1943 was overcast over the primary target, thus the bombing group, composed of B-24s and B-17s diverted to a secondary target. It was no matter to Wade. He never saw either target.

Each of the six journalists (two reporters didn't fly that day) who flew the mission that day were on different planes. Wade's plane developed engine trouble and had to turn back. He later filed a story with his college-town Minnesota newspaper headlined "This local boy didn't make good." Later Wade missed a chance to fly a mission with the RAF when he lost a coin toss with fellow INS reporter Lowell Bennett. Bennett's plane was shot down and he was held prisoner in a German POW camp for 18 months. Eventually, Wade would fly a mission on D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...

 on a B-26
B-26 Marauder
The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe....

.

The Writing 69th
The Writing 69th
The Writing 69th was a group of eight American journalists who trained to fly and flew on bomber missions over Germany with the U.S. Eighth Air Force.- The beginnings :...

 never got a chance to fulfill their destiny as flying war correspondents. On the first mission New York Times correspondent Robert Post was killed in action when the plane he was on was shot down over Germany. The tragedy effectively ended the days of The Writing 69th.

After the war

After the war ended Wade went on to earn a degree from the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

. He worked as an editor, writer and on-air talent for Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...

beginning in 1955. In 1963 he became Voice of America's European bureau chief in Munich. He later worked for a decade as the chief for Voice of America's West European bureau in London. During this time he covered a lot of world financial and economic news and later wrote a book on the topic. Wade retired from Voice of America in 1984 and in 1994 moved to Oakland, California to be closer to his family.

Wade was married to Margaret Wade for 58 years before she died in October 2005. He had two daughters, Margaret and Christine.
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