James Willard Reynolds was the radio operator on a B-17 that ditched in the South Pacific on 10-21-1942. One of the other passengers on the plane was World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, who was on a secret mission for the War Department. Reynolds, Rickenbacker, and five others survived the ditching and were eventually rescued after being adrift for three weeks in three life rafts. An eighth passenger died at sea of exposure. Sgt. Reynolds would go on to spend another 12 years in the military, some of it as a radio operator for the "Flying Tigers" unit in China.
James Willard Reynolds was the radio operator on a B-17 that ditched in the South Pacific on 10-21-1942. One of the other passengers on the plane was World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, who was on a secret mission for the War Department. Reynolds, Rickenbacker, and five others survived the ditching and were eventually rescued after being adrift for three weeks in three life rafts. An eighth passenger died at sea of exposure. Sgt. Reynolds would go on to spend another 12 years in the military, some of it as a radio operator for the "Flying Tigers" unit in China.
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