In the last post, we told you about our latest restoration project, a P-39 Bell Airacobra. Thousands of these aircraft flew through Blatchford Field during World War II on their way up the Northwest Staging Route to Alaska. There, they were turned over to Russians pilots, who flew them through Siberia to the Eastern Front.
In December, 1942, one of those aircraft, piloted by American Herald Williams, crashed near Wetaskiwin, AB, on its way to Edmonton. A young Stan Reynolds was contracted by the American military to help dig the plane out. Reynolds would go on to build a collection of airplanes, trucks and farming equipment that would form the basis for the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin.
Before Reynolds died in 2012, AAM Communications Coordinator, Steve Finkelman, then working for CBC Radio, spoke to him about his connection to the P-39.