Born on 26 January 1919, Selden Edner moved to California in the 1930s and in 1940, after reading the news about the war in Europe, he left home to join the Royal Canadian Air Force.



After completing pilot training he was posted to the RAF No. 121 "Eagle Squadron" in England. While flying with the Squadron, Edner was credited with the destruction of 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, 1 shared probable, and 2 damaged.



In late summer 1942, when the Eagle Squadron transferred to the U.S. Army Air Forces, he was commissioned as a Captain on September 16, 1942. He then returned to the U.S. where he served as an instructor pilot.



On 29 April 1943, he was promoted to the rank of Major and was assigned in October of that year to the 336th Fighter Squadron of the 4th Fighter Group in England. Achieving the rank of Lt Colonel on 29 November 1943, he took command of the 336th Squadron. Becoming Operations Officer for the 4th Fighter Group in January 1944, he was named the Group’s Executive Officer the next month.



On 8 March 1944, he was forced to bail out over Germany and was made a Prisoner of War. Selden Edner was held at Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan-Silesia Bavaria and later at Nuremberg-Langwasser before returning to Allied Military control on 29 April 1945, probably at Stalag 7A in Moosburg, where Stalag Luft 3 POWs had arrived after a long forced-march.



After the war, Selden Edner returned to flying status and later served as an Air Attaché to Greece during the Civil War there. On 21 January 1949, flying as an observer in the back seat of an AT-6 flown by a Greek pilot on a reconnaissance mission, the aircraft was shot down by Communist guerillas near Karpenision (Karpenissi), Greece. While the pilot died, Lt Col Edner was wounded and survived the crash only to be hanged by the guerillas that same day.