Selden Raymond Edner was born on 26 January 1919 in Fergus Falls, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, USA, the second of the three sons of Eric Olaus Edner (1890-1948) and Anna Josephina Edner née Halvorson (1888-1958). His brothers were Leon Eric Edner (1915-1998) and Marvin George Edner (1925-1973).
From the American Air Museum in Britain website we learn that he moved to California in the 1930s and where he attended San Jose State University from 1937 to 1940. After reading the news about the war in Europe, he left home to join the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Having completing pilot training he came to England and was posted to the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he was attached to their No.121 Eagle Squadron as a Flight Lieutenant. While flying with the Squadron, he was credited with the destruction of 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, 1 shared probable, and 2 damaged, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (British).
On 15 October 1941 he married Helen Ann Young (1921-1998) in Dunkeld, Perthshire (now Perth and Kinross), Scotland and they were to have three children: Sandra Josephine Edner (1946-1946), Christine H. Edner (b.1948) and Selden Edner (b.1949).
In late summer 1942, when the Eagle Squadron transferred to the United States Army Air Forces, he was commissioned as a Captain on 16 September 1942, his service number being O-885118. He then returned to the USA where he served as an instructor pilot.
On 29 April 1943, he was promoted to the rank of Major and was assigned in October of that year to the 336th Fighter Squadron of the 4th Fighter Group in England. Achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 29 November 1943, he took command of the 336th Squadron. Becoming Operations Officer for the 4th Fighter Group in January 1944, he was named the Group’s Executive Officer the next month.
On 8 March 1944, he was forced to bail out over Germany and was made a Prisoner of War and held initially at Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Lower Silesia, Germany (now Poland). He was later transferred to Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg-Langwasser, Germany, before returning to Allied Military control on 29 April 1945, probably at Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany, where Stalag Luft III Prisoners of War had arrived after a long forced-march.
After the war he returned to flying status and later served as an United States Air Attaché to Greece during the Civil War there. On 21 January 1949, flying as an unarmed observer in the back seat of a Greek Royal Air Force AT-6 aeroplane, flown by a Greek pilot on a reconnaissance mission, the aircraft was shot down by Communist guerrillas making a forced landing near Karpenision, Greece. Whilst his pilot died, he was only wounded and survived the crash. He was hanged, aged 29 years, by the guerrillas that same day.
His body was returned to the USA and was buried alongside that of his daughter Sandra Josephine Edner in Plot LL, Oak Hill Memorial Park, San Jose, Santa Clara County, California. For his USA military service he was awarded the Air Force Longevity Service Award, the Air Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross (USA), the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Purple Heart and the World War II Victory Medal.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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