Memorial

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1st Lt William R. Preddy graduated from Greensboro High School in 1942 and attended Texas A&M and North Carolina State College.

Before he enlisted in Miami Beach, Florida, on 26 February 1943, he took a temporary job at a shipyard in Wilmington as a welder’s helper.

While attending training, he was named Student Commander of his Post and was later sent to Waco, Texas, for basic training. William was named Cadet Group Commander in July 1944. Preddy received special instruction for Piloting P-51 Mustang airplanes. When his brother George came home to sell War Bonds in September, he and his mother visited William in Venice, Florida. While there, the two brothers engaged in a mock aerial “dogfight” in two P-51 Mustangs.
William did not learn of George’s death until the middle of February 1945.
On 2 March, William claimed two aerial victories, and on 17 April, while strafing an airport in Czechoslovakia, he was shot down by enemy groundfire. He crash-landed his P-51 Mustang at a small village and was rescued by a Czech citizen. He took him to a German emergency treatment facility and later to the hospital in Budejovice, where he died of his injuries the next day.

1st Lt William R. Preddy was first buried at a local cemetery but was later buried alongside his brother, Maj George E. Preddy, a P-51 pilot with the 328th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group.

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