Walter Gaylor originally had the idea of writing a book to report of the history of the 22nd Bombardment Group (22nd BG). He joined the 22nd in June 1941 as adjutant of the 33rd Bombardment Squadron (33rd BS) at Langley Field and, after Pearl Harbor, was with the Group on every move from Muroc to Northern Australia to the combat zones in New Guinea and the former Dutch East Indies, ending up in 1944 at Owi as Commanding Officer (C.O.) of the Group’s Headquarters detachment.

Walt began his Army career in 1935 as a 22-year-old 2nd Lieutenant in the Infantry Reserves while studying analytical chemistry at Penn State. Later he earned a degree in English literature at Harvard. While serving as acting headmaster of a prep school during the late 1930s and still in the Reserves, he was ordered into the Army Air Corps in 1941 and sent to Langley. After returning to the States in 1944, he became commandant of troops at Drew Field, Tampa. It was about this time that he wrote up an early part of the Group’s history, called The Marauder, which dealt with the B-26 era. He also began collecting material for future history that would cover the B-25 and B-24 periods as well.

After the war, Walt taught English for a while and then became editor of The Technical Survey, a weekly intelligence report on technology advances. In 1950 he took on the huge task of organizing the annual reunions and publishing the 22nd Newsletter. By 1985 he had retired from The Technical Survey and begun working with Larry Hickey to publish a history using photocopies of mission reports and other data from the National Archives and diaries and photographs donated by members of the Group. Walt was president of the 22nd Bomb Group Association for 50 years and continued to serve until his death on January 27, 2004.

Gaylor is the co-author of Revenge of the Red Raiders. in the Eagles Over The Pacific series.