To answer some of the questions subscribers all over the world have been asking about how TIME gathers, verifies, writes and distributes its news.

Naturally we are all very proud of our TIME & LIFE men and women in uniform . ..

For example -- Technical Sergeant Edwin N. Rees. Not so long ago he was "the best office boy we ever had" (the U. S. at War Editor speaking). Now he is a rear gunner--and somewhere in Britain this week he wears a just-won Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for "extraordinary heroism" in bombing missions over Germany.

Captain Lee Maxwell of our San Francisco office is another of our men who wears the D.F.C. (As pilot of the "Puffing Hussy," he has gone on 51 bombing raids, once brought his crew safely home from an unescorted mission even though enemy fighters had shot away his landing gear. Only casualty was the toy elephant he carried as a mascot.) Second Lieut. N. Robert Drake of our newsstand department has the D.F.C. and the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf clusters (a bombardier, Drake was shot down over Sicily, captured by the Nazis -- for 18 months now has been a prisoner of war in Germany). And Cinema Writer Alfred Wright Jr. is still another TIME man who holds the D.F.C. and the Air Medal (plus the Presidential Unit Citation) for "outstanding airmanship, heroic conduct, loyal devotion to duty." (In the Solomons Lieut. Wright bombed and strafed 25 Japanese vessels "with cool courage and titter disregard for his own safety in the face of tremendous anti-aircraft fire.")

Lieut. Colonel Edward K. Thompson, head of our Picture Bureau before the war, holds the Legion of Merit... Writer Hugh Fosburgh (now 2nd Lieut. Fosburgh) has the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters...and Captain David Walter Allard of our Cleveland staff has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart and the Croix de guerre with palm for "extraordinary heroism in action." (Allard volunteered to swim the Seine under heavy fire to scout out German positions -- was wounded getting back -- "despite great pain gave detailed accounts of the enemy disposition that contributed greatly to the success of the crossing.")

All told, we have seen close to a third of our pre-Pearl Harbor staff go off to the wars. So far 46 girls have left to join the Wacs or the Waves or the Red Cross-- and the Service Roster in our reception room shows that there are now 340 TIME, LIFE & FORTUNE men in uniform (almost 50 percent have earned commissions). And the services seem to have made good use of the special skills of these men. To mention just a few, a photographer is "still my own photo boss with my own lab" ... an editorial man is Yank's senior Alaska correspondent . . . and one of our News Bureau men is gathering vital combat intelligence for the Army's G-2 Division.

We get a lot of very welcome letters from our men and women in the forces -- and often our correspondents at the battlefronts send word of our military absentees. For example, one of Annalee Jacoby's first cables from Chungking started off with a size-up of the situation at Liuchow ("Eight of our air bases are missing") by Captain Gerald McAllister of the Fourteenth Air Force -- once an office boy in our Washington Bureau.

The experience these TIME people are getting in the world's far places is bound to make them more knowledgeable, more understanding newsmen when this war is done. And we hope it won't be too many months before we can welcome them home again.

We're waiting for them -- and so are; their old jobs, or better ones.

Cordially,

P.S. We're happy to know that only two of our men have been taken prisoner and interned--but six of the names on our Roster are in gold now. Across the top of this honor roll are the words: "For the Freedom of All People."

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