Reina Pennington

Reina Pennington has published numerous books, articles, and book chapters on Soviet military history. Her first book was Wings, Women and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. Her second book, Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women, is an award-winning two-volume edited collection of more than three hundred entries on women’s military roles throughout history. Her articles and presentations encompass both the academic world and the general public.

Retirement now allows her to write full time. She is currently working on a novel and as a consultant for a historical board game, with several other projects in the wings.

Reina Pennington recently retired from Norwich University, where she taught military, Russian, and European history for 23 years. She served as Director of the Studies in War and Peace program and Director of the Colby Military Writers’ Symposium, and for several terms as an elected at-large representative to the Faculty Senate. Norwich recognized her efforts with its highest awards for both excellence in teaching and excellence in research. On retirement, she was named a Professor Emerita.

At the national level, Pennington served for ten years as a Presidential Counselor to the National World War II Museum and for eight years on the Society for Military History Board of Trustees. She also served nine years on the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee, four years as its chair. Additionally, Pennington served on editorial boards for several journals and university presses.

Pennington attended college on an Air Force ROTC Scholarship, and was an AFROTC Distinguished Graduate. She was trained as an intelligence officer and earned a regular commission upon her promotion to the rank of captain. Pennington served more than nine years as a Soviet analyst with F-4 and F-16 fighter squadrons at Hill AFB; the Aggressor Squadrons at the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis AFB; the Defense Intelligence Agency; and the Alaskan Air Command. She has flown in the A-4, F-4, F-5, CF-5, F-15, and F-16 (as well as a variety of helicopters, trainers, and transports) on dissimilar air combat training missions and during Red Flag exercises, and in USAF, USN, and Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft.

As an Air Force officer, Pennington gave intelligence briefings on Soviet fighter tactics to two chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, the Aviation/Space Writers Association, the German Strategy Forum, the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Navy Fighter Weapons School (“Top Gun”). She continues to serve as historian for the Aggressor Alumni Association.

Pennington was born in Liberal, Kansas, the daughter of Lance and Gloria Pennington. The family moved almost frequently and she lived in six states. As a child her main interest was science; she first wanted to be a paleontologist, then (under the influence of Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey) an astronomer. She attended college at University of Louisville as a physics major with a Russian language minor. She was active in Student Government as the Academic Vice President and Director of the Louisville Free University program. The AFROTC unit enticed her with an Air Force scholarship to switch majors to Soviet Area Studies and accept an Air Force commission after graduation.

After nearly a decade of military life, Pennington left the Air Force when it decided it no longer needed Soviet analysts. She worked as a conference planner in Santa Fe and a technical writer in South Carolina before entering graduate school at the University of South Carolina. Then she secured a position at Norwich University, retiring as a full professor.

Pennington lives in the woods of central Vermont. Needless to say, she loves cold winters, hot coffee, and many, many good books.