Harry Crosby's Life and Legacy – Masters of the Air DEBRIEF

This week we get to talk with Rebecca Hutchinson, the youngest daughter of the 100th Bomb Group Navigator Harry Crosby. The Masters of the Air series on AppleTV+ is centered around the 100th Bomb Group in the 8th Air Force, and Harry Crosby’s book served as the a guiding light for series. In addition to being the show’s narrator, Anthony Boyle plays Harry Crosby across the 9 episodes.

Rebecca was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about her father, his life story, memories she has of him, and her experience working with John Orloff, Kirk Saduski, and the team that wrote and produced Masters of the Air.

You don’t want to miss this week’s episode if you’ve been watching Masters of the Air, following our Masters of the Air DEBRIEF series, or you’re a fan of history. Be sure to share with friends and family!

Photos of Harry Crosby and His Family

*Young Airmen Harry Crosby at Thorpe Abbott on a Bicycle*

*The Crosby family at a Masters of the Air premiere event*

*Harry Crosby – Then and Now (1943 – 2005)*

Bio – Harry Crosby

From the Hutchinson/Crosby family, on Wikipedia:

On December 13, 1941, following the Imperial Japanese Navy attack on Pearl Harbor, Crosby suspended his graduate degree studies at the University of Iowa to enlist in the United States Army Air Forces. He was assigned to Mather Field, California, where he trained as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress navigator. Transferred to Boise, Idaho, Crosby was assigned to the 418th Squadron of the 100th Bombardment Group. In May 1943 his was one of 36 original “Bloody 100th” combat crews who flew their B-17s to Warton, England and a week later to their base at RAF Thorpe Abbotts, in East Anglia.

His first combat mission was on June 28, 1943. “He was Lead Navigator for many of the long range and all the shuttle missions flown by the 100th starting with the July 24, 1943 1900 mile trip to Trondeim, Norway with Col Neil Harding (100th Gp Commander). This was the start of a series of missions known as ‘Blitz Week.’ The Regensburg/Africa shuttle with Major John Kidd and Everett Blakely, the Group’s long shuttle to Migorod via Ruhland, always a dangerous target that lay just south of Berlin. This second shuttle mission was code named ‘Frantic,’ a mission which demanded the utmost in precision navigation as the distance closely approached the maximum range of the B-17.” In November 1943 he was promoted to lead navigator of the 100th Bomb Group and would go on to lead missions of as many as 2,000 heavy bombers. By war’s end, he had flown 32 combat missions.

Asked to list the outstanding people who served under him, Major General Curtis LeMay named 19 officers from the 3rd Air Division. About Harry he wrote, “…outstanding officer, both from combat and training standpoint, has a superior record in combat leadership and in devising training methods beneficial to the 3rd Air Division, 8th Air Force.”

Returning to school, he graduated from the University of Iowa in 1947 with his master’s degree, and earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1953, where Wallace Stegner supervised his dissertation. Harry taught English composition and American literature at the University of Iowa, and was the Writing Supervisor of the Rhetoric Program (1950–1958).

In 1958 he moved with his wife and four children to Newton, Massachusetts for a faculty position at the College of Basic Studies (CBS) at Boston University. He retired from Boston University in 1984, after chairing the Department of Rhetoric at CBS and authoring or co-authoring with CBS colleagues six textbooks on college writing.

College Writing – The Rhetorical Imperative;Harper & Row, 1968
Just Rhetoric, Crosby/Esty; Harper & Row 1972
The Shape of Thought: An Analytical Anthology, Bond/Crosby; Harper & Row, 1978
Building College Spelling Skills, Crosby/Emery; Little Brown; 1981
Better Spelling in 30 Minutes a Day, Crosby/Emery; Harper Collins 1994
Skill Builders – A Spelling Workout, Crosby/Emery; Harper Collins, 1997

During his early retirement, he served as Director of the Writing Center at Harvard University.

His combined military and university experience prepared him to help develop curriculum at the United States Air Force Academy, early in its history in Colorado Springs. In 1960, Harry took a leave of absence from Boston University for two years as Director of Studies for the Pakistan Air Force Academy in Risalpur, (West) Pakistan. There with his family, he helped develop the pilot training program into a full military college modeled on the United States service academies. He was also tasked by the Central Intelligence Agency with helping track Pakistan’s use of American military aid and relationships with China and the Soviet Union.

During his twenty-six years in Newton, he and Jean were active in church, community and civic affairs. They attended Grace Episcopal Church where Harry served on the Vestry Committee and, with Jean, supported church sponsorship of several immigrant Cambodian “boat people” families. They chaired five successful Newton campaigns (1970 – 1978) for anti-Vietnam War Representative Father Robert Drinan. In 1980, Harry worked in Representative Barney Frank’s first congressional campaign. He was also an early and long supporter of Michael Dukakis’s political career. Harry served on the Newton Board of Aldermen from 1970 to 1973, during which he was particularly pleased to support development of both the Newton Arts Center and low-income housing.

In 1993, Harper Collins published his WWII memoir A Wing and a Prayer. His account later became source material for the 2024 Spielberg-Hanks production Masters of the Air, where he is portrayed by Irish actor Anthony Boyle.

Crosby was featured in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Time and Navigation Display which can be viewed on-line. His wartime scrapbook can also be viewed there.

Harry Crosby died on July 28, 2010, at age 91.

At the memorial service, Governor Michael Dukakis said of Harry, “He was smart. He had a strong sense of values that was in everything he said and did. He was the nicest guy in the world, but he could be tough – and in being tough he was often the best kind of friend.”

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