'Together We Fly' booklet

9 page booklet distributed by the U.S. Army Air Forces as an informational guide to flight school for navigators, bombardiers, and pilots. Each of the three positions receives its own couple of pages detailing what their duties are and how they carry them out. The booklet also includes a preliminary section on classification, or the physical and mental tests a new recruit must go through in order to be placed in one of the three positions. Most pages include large, black and white photographs about each subject. C. Walder Parke was classified as a pilot at first, but he quickly switched to being a navigator for the rest of his military career. Charles Walder Parke was born on July 28, 1924, and grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 intending to be a pilot during WWII, but spent most of his military career as a navigator on B-17 Flying Fortresses in the 94th Bombardment Group. Parke earned two Bronze Stars, an Air Medal with several Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his successful bombing missions, including some over Berlin. He is best known for being on board a B-17 which was shot down over France by German planes on June 25, 1944, during a non-combat mission. The crew managed to make an emergency landing, and everyone inside survived. After the war, Parke founded the Cleveland-based Laurel Industries Inc., which became a prominent supplier of antimony oxide to the plastics industry. He died of Lou-Gehrig’s Disease on September 15, 1996, at the age of 72