JAMES FOSTER REYNOLDS, the youngest of five children, was born on August 2, 1918. His childhood was spent deep in the piney woods of East Texas in the old neutral grounds that formerly separated the United States from Spain. Young Reynolds’ mother died while he was a baby and his father shortly after. He never really knew his parents and the security of home and family. After the death of his parents, Jim went to live with the Odems, who were distant relatives of the family. This family consisted of a spinster daughter, a bachelor son, and their aged mother. Though poor, these people were the salt of the earth. They knew the value of an education and had high moral standards. They taught Jim these standards along with his three Rs. It was from them he learned that things of value do not come easily, and that things worth having are worth fighting to secure and keep. Often when this family was unable to buy kerosene for their lamps, Jim’s studying was by the light of torches, which they held. Other than as a spartan existence, this phase of Jim’s life was uneventful.

When he was fourteen, a sister, Lottie, secured employment in Houston, Texas, and took Jim with her to live. While there, he attended Sam Houston High School. As this was during the worst of the depression, Reynolds was forced to deliver papers after school to augment their meager income. On his first weekly pa-day, he received $4.50, which to him was a tremendous sum. He made the purchase for one dollar of something he had always wanted but had never been able to own. Filled with misgivings as to whether his sister would approve his spending such a sum, he hid his treasured possession on his arrival home. The sister was somewhat alarmed on arriving from work to hear a steady ticking emerging from the closet, as though from a time bomb. An investigation disclosed that the family had acquired a dollar watch. His sister was not angry as he had expected her to be for she knew her little brother had the makings of a fine and noble man.

When he finished high school, jobs were unobtainable and college an impossibility for a boy in his circumstances. Jim had heard of a wonderful opportunity. From the United States Army a deserving boy might be selected from the ranks to attend West Point and receive a commission. Although the odds were a thousand to one against him, nothing seemed impossible to a boy of Jim Reynolds’ caliber.

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1936 and was assigned to Randolph Field near San Antonio, Texas. The Army filled an empty space that had always existed in young Reynolds’ life, taking the place of parents and a home. The United States Army is made of American men and women who place their country’s welfare above all other things. Jim immediately made application to attend the preparatory school then held yearly at Camp Bullis, Texas. From this school, appointees were selected to attend the United States Military Academy. He was unsuccessful in his first try but he was not discouraged, for he had already been graduated from the academy of “Tough Breaks.” Because he did not know the word failure, he laid plans for his next try, in which he was successful. He was assisted and encouraged by his squadron commander, whom he always remembered with gratitude and affection.

James F. Reynolds was admitted to the United States Military Academy in July 1939. When war was declared in 1941, the country was desperately short of pilots. A group of cadets was selected to become fliers. Jim was in this group and was thus able to return to his first love, the Army Air Corps. He took his primary training at Cuero, Texas, and then went to Randolph Field, where he had trained as a rookie soldier, for his basic training. He completed his advance training at Ellington Field in time to return to West Point and graduate with his class on 19 January 1943. Upon graduation, he married the former Ann Harrison of Newburg, New York. Ann was a wonderful girl and they were very happy. It was perhaps the most carefree and happy time of Jim Reynolds’ whole life. Their honeymoon was spent in East Texas among his friends and relatives. Then he returned to the grim business of training to fight. His country was at war and to him the motto “Duty, Honor, Country” was not a hollow slogan but a way of life. He first went to Laughlin Field near Del Rio, Texas, to learn to fly the B-26 Marauder. After completing this training, he joined the 344th Bombardment Group at Lakeland Field, Florida. There he trained with his crew and prepared for an overseas assignment. He left for England on January 16, 1944. After completing twenty-six missions, he was ordered to USSTAF HQ to represent the B-26. Jim, feeling that a man could always do a little more, insisted on increasing his missions to thirty. On May 28, 1944, he was shot down over France. Four of his crew escaped by bailing out, but Jim rode his ship to the ground and was killed. He was awarded the Air Medal with Four Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.

He is buried somewhere in France. Although his body, like those of thousands of other American boys, lies on foreign soil, his spirit has joined that illustrious assembly of warriors who have given their lives fighting for their ideals and their homeland. I know that Jim Reynolds will be happy in knowing he belongs with those Immortals, and will feel at home in that land of sunshine where the weather for flying is always just right and the ceiling unlimited.

— Marvin W. Reynolds