Ships
- USS Prince William (CVE-31) Captain from 18 February 1945 · Relieved on 15 May 1946
Oscar Pederson was born Nils Oscar Rubenstein on 10 July 1904 in Manhattan, New York City, the eldest of four children of Nils Oscar Rubenstein, from Sweden, and Johanna Pedersen, from Denmark. By 1910 the family had taken the surname Pederson, from his mother's maiden name. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy from New York on 21 June 1922 and graduated on 3 June 1926, ranked 187th of 456. He married Dorothy Nelson Robertson in Norfolk, Virginia, on 1 July 1931, and they had three daughters. He received a master's degree in engineering from the University of Michigan in 1935.
He became a naval aviator. In early 1942 he commanded Fighting Squadron 42 aboard Yorktown and led its Wildcats over Salamaua and Lae in March. On 25 April 1942 he became Commander, Yorktown Air Group. At Coral Sea, Captain Buckmaster kept him aboard as fighter director, and Pederson directed the fighters that shot down a Japanese four-engine patrol bomber on 8 May. Buckmaster recommended him for a commendation. At Midway he again directed the air group from the ship. Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that Yorktown's air group commander was "a little smarter than his opposite numbers in figuring out the shortest way to the enemy carriers."
From June to October 1942 he was air operations officer on Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's staff during the Guadalcanal landings and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. He then became navigator of Enterprise. He was promoted to captain on 1 August 1943. From 18 February 1945 to 15 May 1946 he commanded the escort carrier Prince William on aircraft-ferry and Magic Carpet duty. During the Korean War he commanded Valley Forge (CV-45) and received the Legion of Merit with Combat "V" for his service off Korea from 4 December 1951 to 20 June 1952.
He retired in July 1956 and was advanced to rear admiral on the retired list. He died on 22 October 1994 at Whispering Pines, North Carolina, at age 90.
Legacy
He was one of the first carrier fighter-director officers in combat. Historians credit his direction of Yorktown's air group with that ship's coordinated strike on the Japanese carriers at Midway.