Lana Wando and her husband Ross Reynolds who was a captain in the U.S. Marines had been married just a few weeks before he lost his life March 18 when the MV-22B Osprey he was flying in crashed. Courtesy photo
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Lana Wando and her husband Ross Reynolds had their whole lives ahead of them when tragedy struck.
Reynolds, a captain in the U.S. Marines, was participating in a training mission March 18 in Norway when his MV-22B Osprey crashed. Reynolds was killed along with three others on board, Capt. Matthew Tomkiewicz, Gunnery Sgt. James Speedy and Cpl. Jacob Moore.
To add to the tragedy, Reynolds was a newlywed. He and Lana – both 27 years old – were married Feb. 9. They had just purchased a home in New River, N.C. where Reynolds was stationed.
So besides dealing with the loss of a spouse, Lana also is addressing all the financial and administrative consequences of her husband’s death, her father Tom Wando of Los Alamos said. Due to an error on the paperwork, Lana is not the recipient of her husband’s life insurance. As a result, Tom said several Go Fund Me campaigns have been organized and he is working with the Los Alamos American Legion to schedule a fundraiser later this summer.
If interested in donating, here are the links to the Go Fund Me campaigns:
https://gofund.me/858d9c47
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-family-of-capt-ross-a-reynolds?qid=059302e6c1030f912aa42768c273b62c
Wando said his daughter and Reynolds had dated for four years. She met him while doing an internship in the D.C. area and Reynold was attending Marine Corps officer training in Quantico, Va. Tom described his son-in-law as a team player and a great leader.
“He was an Eagle Scout and active in the community growing up,” he said. “He even worked as a camp counselor and touched many lives that way. In college, he got a scholarship in the Marines to be a pilot … when he graduated (from Worchester State) and was an ambassador for that college … everybody who he touched – they all knew him as a friend.”
At the funeral, which was held in Boston, Tom said one of the speakers remarked that Reynolds is “the guy you would want your daughter to marry.”
“That’s so true,” Tom said. “This is the guy you would want your daughter to marry.”
As for his daughter, Tom said Lana is a leader herself.
“She was Ross’ biggest supporter. She helped him study for flight school. She was a great Marine wife. She was all about taking care of her husband and making him successful.”
Reynolds was from Massachusetts and while Lana did not grow up in Los Alamos, she did live here for two years and worked for S&J Development. Tom said he, his wife and some of Lana’s siblings have lived in Los Alamos for five years. Her siblings include sister Mireille, who resides in Los Alamos; Caleb who is stationed at Camp Pendleton; Caroline, is a nursing student at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix; and Susanna, who is homeschooled.
As she works to recover from the loss of her husband and move forward with her life, Tom said Lana also is trying to amend the process for how life insurance transfers in the military. He explained the hope is to have the insurance automatically go to the spouse or to install training on how to care for dependents in the event of a death.
In an email, Tom further commented: “One additional minor downside of this situation is that Ross did not properly update his military records to provide for Lana in case of a tragedy like this. Ross told a fellow pilot in Norway that one of the reasons he got married to Lana was to ensure she was taken care of with the military life insurance. He enrolled her in the military dependents system but did not know he had to also update his records for the life insurance.”
He added, “If Ross could speak to us today, he would tell us all to take care of your loved ones with life insurance, a good Will and/or Trust and any additional provisions that might be needed in case a tragedy happens … we should all make sure everything is taken care of no matter what our situation is. Many Marine friends of Ross and Lana have checked their benefits because of this incident. One of Lana’s new purposes is to make sure this message gets out to Marines and their families.”