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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Diane Haagensen

Colonel Fred J. Christensen, Jr., was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, on October 17, 1921. He attended both Boston University and M.I.T. before entering the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Christensen joined the 56th Fighter Group in August 1943 in England. He scored his first victory in November and by February of 1944 he was an ace. The spring of 1944 saw Christensen score steadily and by mid-April, he had 14 1/2 victories to his credit. His big day came on July 7, 1944. He and his flight caught a formation of 12 Junkers Ju52 transports in the landing pattern and shot down 10 of them. A half dozen fell before the guns of Christensen's P-47. When he left for home he was one of the top aces in the 8th Air Force with 21 1/2 aerial victories.
Christensen left the AAF at the end of World War II and served with both the Massachusetts Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force Reserve before his retirement in the grade of Colonel.