[4] In 1943, he was among the 20 men selected (from 300 applicants) to study at the Liepāja-Grobiņa flight school (German: Flugzeugführerschule A / B Libau / Grobin).
At the end of the war he tried to escape to Sweden from the unit, which had retreated to Germany, but when the engine of his plane failed he was captured by US forces.
His students included the sculptors Hille Palm [et], Jaak Soans [et], Tiiu Kirsipuu, Hannes Starkopf, Vergo Vernik, and Al Paldrok [et], the architect Rein Luup [et], the furniture designer Toomas Kõrvits [et], and the ceramicists Leo Rohlin [et], Ingrid Allik [et], and Annika Teder.
[2] He created humorous sculptures with a simplified approach to form[2] and several public memorials,[5] including the following: the Haapsalu memorial to the victims of fascism (1966), the Kristjan Raud monument [et] in Hirvepark in the center of Tallinn (1968 or 1969, designed together with his wife Eha Reitel),[6] the memorial to the mass grave of soldiers that fell during the capture of the Väinatamm causeway in 1944, Leinav ema (The Grieving Mother), also known as Muhu ema (The Mother of Muhu, with Eha Reitel) on the island of Muhu (1972), and Kaali mees (The Man of Kaali, with Eha Reitel) on Saaremaa (1989).
Kalju Reitel was married three times: to Helvi Johannson (later Mei, 1918–2005), Silvia Taalmann (later Kromanov, 1926–1990), and Eha Thoren (1922–2005).