Alfredo P. Paredes

Sgt. Alfredo P. Paredes was born January 28 1921 in the border town of Del Rio, Texas. Alfredo graduated from San Felipe High School in May of 1941 where he was a starter on the football, basketball, and baseball squads, and in mid-July of 1941 had enlisted in the US Army Air Corps. Stationed at Brooks Air Base (San Antonio) and Sheppard Field (Wichita Falls, TX) Alfredo was then training as an airplane mechanic in Eagle Pass, Texas. He was accepted to Flight Engineer/Gunner school, and was stationed for the training in Georgia. Once he graduated as a flight engineer, Alfredo was sent to South Carolina.

In Greenville South Carolina, Alfredo was assigned to a crew and trained in aB-25 Mitchell Bomber.

The crew spent time in Sacramento California before making it out to the Pacific where they would be assigned to the 5th Air Force, 345th Bomb Group, 501st Bomb Squadron. The Air Apaches of the 345th Bomb Group had already made a name for themselves in the Pacific. The 345th BG was the first full air combat group to be assigned to the Pacific arriving in 1943.

501st Bomb Squadron was nicknamed the Black Panthers. 

On April 28, 1944 Sgt. Paredes, a volunteer on a strategic bombing mission over Saigon Harbor in Indo China (Vietnam), and the crew of the B-25 aircraft nicknamed the “Cactus Kitten” successfully completed their mission but were shot down by enemy fire with thier aircraft exploding before hitting the ground. All crew members perished. At the time Sgt. Paredes was survived by his parents Fidel and Rosa Paredes, and his two brothers Reynaldo and Ernesto. Sgt. Alfredo Paredes was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.