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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
DaleDaveDanny & Joey Russell

Fredrick Brune signed up for Naval Aviation in January 1942; he attended pre-flight school in Athens, Ga., and basic flight school at Anacostia Naval Air Station, Washington, D.C. In 1943 he received his Navy wings at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla., but he received his commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

In 1943 he began training at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, training in the F4F (Grumman Wild Cat) -- the "only thing wild about it was landing it.")

In the fall of 1943 he received orders overseas to Pango Pango in American Samoa for base defense and more training.

In 1943 he was assigned to VMF 311 as a replacement and started up the islands, more or less in this order (memory is suspect): U.S. Samoa, Wallace, Nukeufetau, Funafuti (after this we received F4U Corsair), arrived by ship at Kwajalein Atoll and delighted to have the "U" Bird. From Roi-Namur (northern tip of Kawjalein Atoll). The squadron was better known at the time as "Hells Bells."

We struck Enowetak, Wotje, Mille, Ponape, Jaluit, and Maloelap. After moving through the Gilbert and Marshall group of atolls, we returned to San Francisco by troop ship and were home for Christmas and New Year 1944-45.

In 1945 he was assigned to Naval Air Station, Daytona Beach, Fla. as flight instructor. He instructed three groups of seven through training, then went back to civilian life.

He remained in Marine Corps Reserve. In 2003, 61 years later, at the age of 81, he sold his Mooney and "has hung up flying."

In October 2006 Brune and fellow "Hells Bells" pilot, Francis Clark, met for the first time in over 50 years at the Stephen F. Udvar Hazy Center for a special reunion and a private tour with another former Marine pilot, retired Major Gen. Joseph T. Anderson, then associate director of the National Air and Space Museum.