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NAME Waldo Preston Breeden, Jr. |
NICKNAME Sonny |
SERVICE NUMBER 283783 O-22349 (posthumous) |
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| UNIT VMO-155 Pilot |
HOME OF RECORD 6324 Marchand Street Pittsburgh, PA |
NEXT OF KIN Mother, Mrs. Marie Breeden |
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| DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1918 at Pittsburgh, PA |
ENTERED SERVICE April 24, 1940 at Pittsburgh, PA |
DATE OF LOSS May 16, 1943 |
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| REGION Aleutian Islands |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Attu |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing In Action Declared Dead May 17, 1944 |
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CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS On 16 May 1943, Breeden took off from the Nassau for a mission to Attu. He was not officially carrier qualified, and struggled to gain altitude. Observers on the Nassau saw his plane (F4F-4 BuNo 2526) slam into the water six thousand yards from the ship. The destroyer USS Mead hurried over to search for the pilot, but the Wildcat was already under water and Breeden was nowhere to be seen. Had Breeden survived his mission, he would have returned to news of his promotion to Second Lieutenant, which arrived the same day. The promotion was made posthumously. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Technical Sergeant (posthumous Second Lieutenant) |
STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered. |
MEMORIALS Lakeview Cemetery, Jamestown, NY Honolulu Memorial |
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Biography:
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