1LT Ronald A. Brodhay
1933 – 1958
USMC Reserves
Ronald Allen Brodhay was born February 10, 1933 in Chicago, to Robert O. and Evelyn Preuss Brodhay.
His mother passed away when Brodhay was three years old, and he was raised at the Illinois Masonic Children’s Home in LaGrange. He graduated from Lyons Township High School in 1951, then attended Northern Illinois University for two years prior to joining the U.S. Naval Reserve in September, 1953.
As a USNR a jet pilot, Brodhay trained at Pensacola and served 9 months overseas on the U.S.S. Champlain. In April, 1955, he was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve as a helicopter pilot with the 461st Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron.
Brodhay married Jerry Lou Estes in the base chapel at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. on July 23, 1955.
First Lieutenant Ronald Brodhay was serving at Camp Lejeune when he was killed in a helicopter crash near Brunswick, Georgia, on May 15, 1958. He rests forever in Barrington’s Evergreen Cemetery.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.