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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Terry W. Ruprecht

Fred A. Ruprecht served in the United States Army Air Corps 14th Air Force from April 1942 to August 1945. He was a technical sergeant in the 51st Fighter Group, 23rd Fighter Squadron, and served in the China-Burma-India theatre for over 3 years, primarily in Kunming, China. He was a Master Parachute Rigger with the 14th Air Force "Flying Tigers" (post-AVG (American Volunteer Group) period). The 51st Fighter Group was at March Field, California when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and consequently one of the first US military units shipped overseas (early 1942).

Immediately following World War II, Fred and his brother formed a parachute packing, repair, and fabricating company in Wheeling, Illinois. They also performed an act in air shows in the early 1950s, parachuting from airplanes with an American flag unfurled between them. By the mid-1950s , the Rupert Parachute Company had diversified into Rupert seat belts -- one of the first entities in the world to see and promote the application of aircraft style restraints in cars.

From the mid-fifties on, Fred worked for the Cook Electric Company, Morton Grove, Illinois in the aerospace industry designing and fabricating high-speed recovery devices, including drogue and recovery parachutes used by a myriad of aircraft and space vehicles in the 1950s and 1960s. Among the systems employing his parachutes were the B-58 Hustler cockpit capsule and NASA's Mercury program.

Today (in 2004), Fred and his wife of 59 years, Naomi, reside in Sarasota, Florida.