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Maj George E. Preddy graduated from Greensboro High School at age 16 by doubling up on his courses and attended Guilford College.

He enlisted at Fort Screven, Georgia on 29 April 1941, and was a barnstormer pilot before the war.

On Christmas Day 1944, his plane was hit by American gunfire. The Mustang fighter ace, crashed and died on the Belgian front. Preddy, who had 32½ planes to his credit, was killed instantly. A fusillade of machinegun fire which an American anti-aircraft battery had thrown up to trap a German fighter wrecked the colorful flyer’s P-51 and sent it flaming and spinning to the ground. It was a tragic ending to a spectacular dogfight which had held the ground troops spellbound as they watched Preddy kill off one ME-109, get a second, and then take off after a FW-190 which ironically escaped both his guns and the curtain of fire thrown in the skies by ground crews.
At the time of his death he was the leading ace in the European theater for airskills.
One record, however, still stands by Preddy’s name. Flying escort for Flying Fortresses on August 6 1944, the 5-foot 9 inch major discovered a huge nest of Messerschmitts flying in a tight formation at 28,000 feet. Preddy tackled them alone and shot down six in a little more than six minutes – an achievement which won him the Distinguished Service Cross.
“I guess they figured their protective top cover would take care of me,” he said afterward, “for they didn’t waver from their course. I closed into the pack and shot down five in less than five minutes. Only one managed to use a chute. The other four burned.”
Preddy chased the sixth to 5000 feet, filled the plane’s fuselage with lead and the pilot parachuted. The citation from Lt. Gen. Carl Spaats, chief of the United States Air Forces in Europe, called it courage but Preddy called it luck. His skill in the air won him one decoration after another.

Maj George E. Preddy’s brother, 1st Lt William R. Preddy, a P-51 pilot with the 503rd Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, was later buried along side of him.

Preddy Boulevard, Greensboro, North Carolina is named after and, dedicated to both brothers.