Ken Reddy was born on June 29, 1920, in Bowie, Texas. After graduating from North Texas State Teacher's College with a bachelor's degree in 1940, he enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Corps on November 23, 1940. He was commissioned a 2d Lt in the U.S. Army Air Forces and awarded his pilot wings at Stockton Field, California, on July 11, 1941. His first assignment was as a B-25 pilot with the 34th Bomb Squadron of the 17th Bomb Group at Pendleton Army Airfield, Oregon, from July 1941 until he was selected for the Doolittle Mission in February 1942. Lt Reddy served as the co-pilot on the 11th B-25 to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) on April 18, 1942, and after bombing targets around Tokyo, Japan, the crew flew to China and bailed out when their aircraft ran out of fuel. He returned to the United States after the raid, and served as a B-26 Marauder pilot with the 95th Bomb Squadron of the 17th Bomb Group at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, from June 1942 until he was killed in the crash of a B-26A near Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 2, 1942. Ken Reddy was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Bowie, Texas.

His Distinguished Flying Cross Citation reads:

For extraordinary achievement while participating in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland on April 18, 1942. Lieutenant Reddy volunteered for this mission knowing full well that the chances of survival were extremely remote, and executed his part in it with great skill and daring. This achievement reflects high credit on Lieutenant Reddy and the military service.