Lieutenant Rodney R. Wilder

Rodney Wilder married Ella Mozelle Paschall on 5 January 1946. They had two children too. Also a son and a daughter. His daughter was the ooldest of the two.

He was a co-pilot on a  B-25 that sighted and sank a Japanese submarine on 24 December, 1941 at mouth of Columbia River. Hpwever... A B-25 crew with Everett Holstrom as a pilot and as said  Rodney R. Wilder as a co-pilot of the 17th Bombardment Group (Medium), 2d Air Force, bombed a submarine near the mouth of the Columbia River on 24 December 1941. They claimed it sank, but in fact no Japanese submarine was sunk off the West Coast during World War II.

17th Bombardment Group

Rodney died from a heart attack when he was 47. He is buried in Taylor, Texas.

Obituary from the Williamson County Sun, 11 June 1964, Georgetown, TX.

Last rites for Col. Ross Wilder of Taylor, whose career during World War II brought him many military honors, were held in Taylor Tuesday afternoon. He died in Dallas early Saturday evening of a heart attack. He was 47 years old.

Col. Wilder, a student of Southwestern University 1934-1938, was a pilot with Jimmy Doolittle as the first bombs were dropped on Tokyo in 1942, America's first strike at the Japanese homeland in the bitter conflict.

Col. Wilder was born in Hare near Taylor, Texas and was the son of the late Mr. & Mrs. L. A. Wilder. He was a graduate of Taylor High School and attended Southwestern University and the University of Texas. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Taylor High School when Rodney R. Wilder went to school during those days.

At the time of his death, he was regional director of business affairs for the General Service Administration of the government and was a member of the regional administrative staff. He had been with GSA since 1951.

He was a task force pilot in the first raid over Tokyo, flying from the aircraft carrier Hornet. He also served as a bomber pilot in the American Defense Theater, in the Mediterranean and European theaters of operation, and in the Pacific-China-India Theaters of War.

He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with nine clusters, and the Military Order of China among others.

Surviving are: his wife, Mrs. Ross Wilder of Dallas; a daughter, Mrs. Shelby Kartenberger of Dallas; a son, Morris Wilder of Dallas; two grandchildren, Mary Louise and William Ross Kartenberger of Dallas; one sister, Mrs. Newton G. Holman of Taylor, and two nephews, Newton Ross Holman and Greg Holman of Taylor.

Funeral services were held at 2.p.m. Tuesday in the Condra Memorial Chapel. The Rev. Kenneth Moore officiated with burial in Taylor City Cemetery.

Doolittle flyers served as pallbearers.

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Rodney R. Wilder landed with his chute in China after he bailed out in Daqiao Town, Jiangshan County. 

His wife remarried in 1983 (?) with Edward Conrad Michels.

Rodney R. Wilder was inducted in the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame on 9 November 2001.

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