David Leroy Bredeson 2nd Lieutenant

US Army Air Force 381 Bomber Group Heavy 533rd Bomber Squadron

David Leroy Bredeson was born July 19, 1921 to Edor L. and Agnes Bredeson in Clearwater Minnesota. He was the oldest of four children 3 boys and 1 girl. His father’s parents were immigrants from Norway as was his mother’s mother. His father was a self-employed builder. The 1940 census shows that David was working as a theater usher at the Matron Puton Theater and was a graduate of high school.

In 1941 his draft record shows that he was living in Ft. Worth Texas working for Globe Aircraft. Sometime during 1940-1941 his parents moved to San Diego California, I cannot find any record of David living in San Diego but he was buried there.

On May 30, 1944 David was serving has co-pilot on a B-17G nicknamed Ol’ Swayback. The mission was to target oil refineries in Dessau Germany. They came under heavy enemy aircraft fire and the right wing was set on fire, the plane exploded before all the men could get out. David with the pilot Merrill O. Burton, John T. Eylens, Jr. and Ralph Joseph Powell were all killed. They were buried at the crash site and later moved to the American Military Cemetery in Holland. His father had him reburied at the Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego, California.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

David Leroy Bredeson - 381st Bomber Group Heavy, 533rd Bomber Squadron