Walter Cronkite had a golden rule for all wartime reporters: never self-aggrandize. Even though Cronkite had been the first reporter to fly over the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944, he minimized the experience.
When asked decades later whether he had flown over Utah or Omaha Beach, Cronkite shrugged. "I think it was Omaha," he said. "We didn't know about those names then, of course. All I knew was the beach. I didn't even know how extensive the landings were."
Such self-deprecating responses regarding his own WWII experiences became de rigueur for Cronkite.