Frederick G. Abner, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee on January 23, 1920. His family later moved to Alexandria, Virginia where he attended George Washington High School and graduated in 1938. Following high school he worked at Walter C. Davis and Sons, Inc., an electrical contractor in Alexandria.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the country was on a full war footing, Fred enlisted in the Army Air Corps on November 5, 1942. He had ambitions of becoming a pilot but was soon washed out of the pilot training program because of a hearing impairment in one ear. At that time he attended airplane mechanics school in Keesler, Mississippi, Factory Air Frame Training at Ford Motor Company in Detroit, and later attended aerial gunnery school in Laredo, Texas where he earned his Aerial Gunner wings.