Tag: Ruth Reynolds
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“I didn’t realize the sand was so deep; when I started to land, I buried the wheels.”

Or How Martha Almost Washed Out of WASP School… In 1996, Martha Wagenseil Davis (43-W-2) visited Ruth Franckling Reynolds (43-W-2) at the Reynolds family farm in the Catskills. It would be their last visit together. Photo Credit: Women in Pursuit (1993) by Kay Gott; page 205 by Margaret DiBenedetto Martha: In 1942 I wanted to…
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Ward and Ruth’s Halcott Airstrip

By Margaret DiBenedetto In 1945, Ward Reynolds was fresh out of the Army. During his tour he’d seen action in the Pacific Islands, had come back stateside and was in training to become an Army glider pilot when the war ended. Ward was born in Fleischmanns and grew up working on the family farm in…
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A Possibly Too-Succinct History of the WASP

By Margaret DiBenedetto The WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program began with a feud and ended, some might say, in abandonment. The program’s two years of existence was an experiment that yielded overwhelmingly positive and beneficial results, contributed undeniably to the US victory in WWII, and was short-sightedly terminated. Nancy Love and Jackie Cochran were…