Flight Sergeant Fred Marean was the eldest son of homesteaders from Iowa who settled in Saskatchewan.
Fred graduated from Boyle School in Estlin, SK and then continued his education at Balfour Technical School and Success Business School in Regina, where he studied accounting. At various times he worked as a farm hand for his father, truck driver, store clerk, and service station attendant to help support himself while attending Business School in Regina. He played for local hockey and baseball teams, but his greatest love was badminton.
He was called for service under the National Resources Mobilization Act in 1941 and was assigned to the Royal Canadian Artillery in Shilo for training as a gunner. Three months later, he transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force for pilot training. He completed his initial flight training in Virden, MB and Yorkton, SK before proceeding to England where he was assigned to 78 Squadron, Royal Air Force to fly Halifax bombers.
During the night of March 12, 1943, he was the pilot of DT774, one of about 1,000 aircraft whose mission was to bomb the Krupp factories in the Dortmund and Essen areas that had been manufacturing tanks, artillery, naval guns, armour plate, munitions and other armaments. His return trip took him over Holland, where his aircraft was brought down by a night fighter near Nijmegen. It was his sixteenth mission.
He was the only Canadian aboard the aircraft. The others were all members of the Royal Air Force. They are all buried in a small cemetery near Uden, Holland. Fred was twenty-three.
The residents of Uden wanted to pay tribute to the many Allied airmen who had lost their lives near their town, but they wanted to focus on one aircraft. They chose FSgt Marean's Halifax bomber because they could remember it flying low and trailing fire. Some were afraid it might fall on their house. That did not happen, but one engine did fall through the roof of a barn before it crashed in an open field.
In 1977 the people of Uden dedicated a plaque to the one aircraft they could remember so well. The plaque was installed on the home of the farmer that lost his barn that evening. It includes the names and appointments of all of the crew of Halifax Bomber DT774.
On the seventieth anniversary of the downing of DT774 the people of Uden held another commemorative service on March 12, 2013.
Marean Lake in Saskatchewan is named for him.
This award was sponsored by Ivan and June Poitras. June was FSgt Marean's niece.