Fred Braemer was born on January 31, 1918, in Seattle, Washington. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 16, 1935, and served in the Infantry and Military Intelligence until September 17, 1938, when he left the service for a year. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on September 16, 1939, and was trained as a bombardier. SSgt Braemer was the bombardier on the first B-25 to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, and after bombing Tokyo his crew flew to China and bailed out when their aircraft ran out of fuel. He remained in the China-Burma-India Theater and flew 26 combat missions before returning to the United States to become a bombardier instructor in July 1943. Braemer was commissioned a 2Lt in the USAAF on January 5, 1945, and was released from active duty and joined the Air Force Reserve on November 1, 1945. Lt Braemer was recalled to active duty on September 24, 1951, and he flew 28 combat missions as a B-29 Stratofortress bombardier during the Korean War between December 1952 and June 1953. After the war, Braemer served as a Navigator, Bombardier, and Aircraft Observer on B-47 Stratojet bombers until December 1957, when he reverted to enlisted status and was trained as an Air Traffic Control Operator. He served as an ATC Operator at Wheelus AB, Libya, from January 1960 to September 1963, and then at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, from September 1963 to September 1965, when he regained his commission as a Captain and was assigned to MacDill AFB, Florida. Capt Braemer retired from the Air Force on September 30, 1966. He died on February 2, 1989, and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska.