The Panic of 1893 wiped out the land holdings of the Fleets and the family lived in much diminished conditions from the time Reuben was six until he was thirteen.

Culver provided the equivalent of an associate degree, and after his graduation Fleet intended to continue his education at Stanford University.

[3] Deciding against going to Stanford immediately, in 1907 Fleet returned home, where he took the state teachers examination and began teaching all grades from first through eighth.

Later, from April through May Fleet and three other officers were assigned to San Diego, California, to keep track of the agitators who had moved south from Washington and Oregon, heading to Mexico.

The promise was kept 24 years later when he relocated the Consolidated plant to San Diego from Buffalo, New York Anticipating the entry of the United States into World War I Fleet closed his office in March 1917 and reported to the training facility of the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, United States Army, in San Diego.

During the war in Europe Fleet was the executive officer for Flying Training, Signal Corps Aviation Section, stationed in Washington, D.C., with temporary duty in England.

Fleet was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the Aerial Mail Service in addition to his duties as executive officer for Flying Training.

Fleet successfully petitioned President Wilson personally to suspend the expansion of the air mail service to Boston until better equipment and facilities were created.

[4] Fleet's next assignment was as the Army Air Service's chief aviation contracting officer, part of the Engineering Division, based at McCook Field.

There he played key roles in the development of the turbocharger for aero applications and the testing of a number of other aviation innovations, including the Loening PW-2A, the first American pursuit monoplane, and the de Bothezat helicopter.

On 30 November 1922, Thanksgiving Day, Fleet, his superior officer and the chief of the Power Plant Section announced to the press that they were resigning.

Fleet selected San Diego, California to relocate Consolidated from Buffalo, New York, where winter weather restricted seaplane operations.

[6] Consolidated went on to become a key supplier of heavy bombers with the widely produced B-24 Liberator playing a key role in the Allied strategic bombing campaigns, and the Convair B-36—the world's largest piston-engined bomber—filling a crucial gap in the Cold War years until jet-powered bombers became widely available.

In August 1946, Fleet and his sister, Lillian, bought a parcel of land in Montesano and donated it to the city for use as a park named in honor of their parents.

In 1961 Fleet founded the San Diego Aerospace Museum[6] to commemorate President Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the moon within this decade.

Lillian was Fleet's sister, and "Ned" Bishop, a logging tycoon in western Washington state, was an early investor in Consolidated Aircraft.