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Jesse Leroy Brown

13 October 1926−4 December 1950


Photo of Ensign Jesse L. Brown, ca. September 1949. (80-G-708014)

Ensign Jesse L. Brown, ca. September 1949. (80-G-708014)


A midwinter chill ushered Pentagon employees, contractors, and administrators inside the concrete fortress on 13 January 1949. To the military officials whose attendance before the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services was mandatory, the weather outside matched the icy scowls of committee members. President Harry S. Truman established the committee by executive order the previous year in order to advance military policy and implement substantial social change through racial integration, which was met with some resistance.1 In testimony that day, Navy Captain Fred R. Stickney told the committee, “The Steward Branch consists of the minority races. Two-thirds of them are Negroes,” he continued, “and the other one-third is made up of the other normally considered minority races of Filipino and Chamorros.” Of the estimated forty-five thousand officers in the Navy at the time of the committee meeting, Stickney identified only five were African American.2 Lieutenant Dennis D. Nelson added that the Navy had “advanced to the stage” in desegregation “where Negroes also participate for the first time in naval aviation.” Without identifying the men by name, Nelson mentioned two enlistees selected for aviation cadet training. “One has already received his wings,” he told the committee, “and he is now serving with the fleet at Norfolk in conjunction with advanced flying.”3

The son of Mississippi tenant farmers, Jesse Leroy Brown was an adventurous child with dreams of flight. On Saturday afternoons, “he sometimes hid in the grass to be closer to whatever planes were operating” out of the 500-yard airstrip at Palmer’s Crossing, “to hear the motor thunder, feel the wind the cloth-covered fuselage created, and to smell the strong exhaust.” According to one of his biographers, Theodore Taylor, the adolescent Brown voraciously consumed aviation literature and magazines, particularly Popular Aviation.4 Upon completing his secondary school studies at Eureka High School in Hattiesburg, Brown became one of the millions of African Americans who fled the Jim Crow South to northern cities, seeking better—if still not ideal—social and economic conditions in the Second Great Migration. He enrolled at The Ohio State University where, prior to his appointment to midshipman in the United States Navy, Brown completed twelve semester hours of architecture courses and eighteen semester hours in mathematics. While a student, not only was he a member of the cross country team and the all-Black Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, but he worked the afternoon-to-midnight shift for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a laborer loading and unloading boxcars and as a storeroom employee.5 Despite his youth, Brown maintained a long work history, and according to an undated press release from the Ninth Naval District in Great Lakes, “it was necessary for him to work nights as a waiter in a night club and during summer vacations on the family tenant farm.” He also worked as a waiter at fraternity and sorority houses associated with Ohio State.6 His official military personnel file also lists his previous employment as a delivery truck driver for a local dry cleaner and Camp Shelby Station Hospital, both in his home state.7

Jesse Brown volunteered for the V-5 aviation cadet training program with the Office of Naval Officer Procurement (ONOP) in Cincinnati on 8 July 1946. Brown self-identified as “Negro” on his Application for Enlistment; on his official intake documents, however, under the heading “Citizenship,” Reserve Lieutenant G. E. Baxter (USNR) identified Brown as “U. S. WHITE,” and his “Complexion” as “Dark.” Brown’s Oath of Allegiance is the first document in his military personnel file to identify his citizenship as “U.S. Negro.”8 It is not known if this was intentional—an attempt by LT Baxter to get Brown’s enlistment paperwork more easily accepted—or an administrative oversight.


Photo #: 80-G-706531 Midshipman Jesse L. Brown, USN

Midshipman Jesse L. Brown, ca. October 1948, while serving as a naval aviation cadet at the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. (80-G-706531)


Brown began pre-flight training at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Ottumwa, Iowa in April 1947. It was at Ottumwa that he received his appointment as a midshipman.9 Brown completed his flight training at NAS Pensacola.10 On 21 October 1948, “having successfully completed the prescribed syllabus of training for Naval Aviators,” Midshipman Brown earned the designation of Naval Aviator (Heavier-than-Air).11 Brown was the first African American to earn his wings in the U.S. Navy. He totaled 218 hours in the SNJ trainer aircraft and another 117 flight hours in the F6F Hellcat, the most common aircraft in fighter (VF) squadrons at that time. His reporting officer, Commander J. E. Vose, Jr., identified Brown as a “specially trained VF pilot,” classifying his performance as “satisfactory.”12 From Pensacola, Brown transferred to NAS Norfolk for further flying instruction with the Atlantic Fleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit.13 Here he received ground and flight training in the operation of airborne electronics equipment and the tactical employment of sono-buoys in antisubmarine warfare.14 In his two months at Norfolk, Brown clocked an additional 210 hours in the SNJ, 120 hours in the F6F-5 Hellcat, and ten hours in the N2S biplane.15 It was in January 1949 that the commander of the Atlantic Fleet Air Forces detached Midshipman Brown for reassignment to Fighter Squadron Thirty-Two (VF-32), then stationed at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.16


Photo #: 80-G-707201 Ensign Jesse L. Brown, USN

Ensign Jesse L. Brown takes the oath of office on board USS Leyte (CV-32) on 26 April 1949. The ship’s commanding officer, Captain William L. Erdmann, administered the oath as Lieutenant Commander E. D. Williams (center) looks on. (80-G-707201)


In early spring of 1949, Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan informed Midshipman Brown of his appointment to the rank of ensign by Air Mail.17 Brown accepted his appointment, which took effect on 3 June 1949.18 In a fitness report dated at the time of Brown’s promotion, Lieutenant Commander E. D. Willems described Ensign Brown as “an excellent Naval Officer who performs his regular and additional duties in a very satisfactory manner.” Brown’s demeanor, Willems continued, was “cheerful, agreeable, earnest, and cooperative at all times.” By this time, Brown had clocked 473 total flight hours.19 When LCDR Willems had the opportunity to rate Ensign Brown’s abilities again five months later, he described Brown as “an excellent naval aviator,” adding “his personal and military character is above reproach.” Willems recommended Brown for promotion “when due.”20 As an ensign, Brown continued his studies through the U.S. Naval Correspondence Course Center, completing modules in Elementary Nuclear Physics and International Law.21 By the time Brown completed two years of flight training, he totaled over 2,781 flight hours (Table 1).

Table 1. Jesse Brown’s Total Flight Hours by Aircraft Type, 22 June 1948–30 June 1950

SNJ

Trainer

SNB

Utility/Transport

N2S

Trainer

F6F

Hellcat

F8F

Bearcat

F4U

Corsair

1116.6

38

21

713

797.6

95

Data tabulated from “Officer’s Fitness Report (NAVPERS-310A),” 23 October 1948, 4 January 1949, 30 June 1949, 29 November 1949, 3 January 1950, and 1 July 1950, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.


Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown

Ensign Jesse L. Brown serves as squadron duty officer of VF-32 aboard USS Leyte (CV-32) on 12 April 1949. (80-G-377909)


For much of 1950, Fighter Squadron Thirty-Two (VF-32), attached to Air Group Three (CVG-3) aboard USS Leyte (CV-32), operated in the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet. The squadron had exchanged its F8F Bearcats for F4U-F Corsairs the previous year.22 USS Leyte conducted two cruises to the Mediterranean after Ensign Brown reported to the ship, one between 6 September 1949 and 26 January 1950, the other between 2 May and 24 August 1950, which included port visits in Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon. In late June, while the carrier operated in the eastern Mediterranean, North Korean Communist soldiers, supported materially and ideologically by the Chinese and the Soviets, crossed the 38th Parallel at the Imjin River under a barrage of artillery fire. With the goal of overthrowing the UN-supported Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) and unifying Korea under the rule of Kim Il-sung, the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) raced toward Seoul. According to the cruise book, it was not until Leyte was in Beirut, “enjoying one of the finest liberty ports in the Mediterranean,” that they received orders to return to Norfolk “at high speed to prepare for an emergency tour of duty with the United Nations Forces in Korea.”23 On 8 October, Leyte joined the Seventh Fleet at Sasebo, Japan, bringing VF-32 into Task Force 77 and supporting the Navy’s “interdiction” actions in North Korea “designed to deprive the enemy of supplies and transport facilities.”24 From October 1950 to January 1951, VF-32 engaged in strikes against targets at Wonsan Harbor, Pukchong, Chongjin, and Chosin Reservoir.25


Photo #: 80-G-377908 Ensign Jesse L. Brown Ensign R.G. Rider

Ensign Jesse L. Brown and Ensign R. G. Rider play a game of backgammon in the VF-32 ready room aboard USS Leyte on 12 April 1949. (80-G-377908)


Table 2. USS Leyte Air Group (CVG-3) Damage Inflicted on the Enemy

TARGET

DAMAGED

DESTROYED

Buildings

84

338

Railroad Trestle

2

0

Highway Bridge

1

0

Towns Occupied by Enemy Forces

0

7

Ammunition Dump

0

2

Fuel Dumps

0

9

Supply Dumps

0

4

Tanks

1

0

Armored Cars

1

0

Trucks

17

21

Locomotives

4

2

Railroad Cars

2

1

Oxcarts

4

42

Jeep Type Vehicles

3

2

Horses

0

130

Oxen

0

3

Field Pieces

0

3

Mortar Positions (Silenced)

- - - - - 4 - - - - -

Command Posts

1

0

Artillery Observation Post

1

0

Machine Gun Nests (Silenced)

- - - - - 4 - - - - -

Source: T. U. Sisson to Chief of Naval Operations, memorandum, “Narrative Report of Action for the Period 1 December 1950 through 26 December 1950,” January 8, 1951, 9, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC.

For three weeks, from mid-October to November 1950, Ensign Brown participated in ten strike missions over North Korea, where he attacked enemy troops, railroad cars, armored vehicles, and highway bridges in Wonsan, Chongjin, and Songjin in his Corsair F4U-4. He provided close air support for American ground forces in the vicinity of Sinanju, resulting in the “accelerated advance” of these troops.26 From mid-October until his death on 4 December 1950, Ensign Brown participated in an additional ten strike missions, assisting in aerial attacks against enemy military installations, troop concentrations, transportation facilities, and lines of communication. A recommendation for the Distinguished Flying Cross notes that Brown saw action at Takushan, Manpojin, Linchong, Sinuiju, Kasan, Conjin, Sonjin, Kilchu, and, finally, north of the Chosin Reservoir.27 For seventy-six days—from mid-October through Christmas Day 1950, CVG-3 pilots conducted 3,369 sorties. In that same period, the air group lost seven aircraft with an additional fourteen damaged.28 Two pilots were killed with an additional two listed as missing in action.29

Table 3. USS Leyte Air Group (CVG-3) Sorties Flown Over Korea by Type

 

SORTIES

SORTIES OVER KOREA

F9F Panther

821

207

F4U Corsair

1,586

1,291

AD Skyraider

962

750

TOTAL

3,369

2,248

Source: T. U. Sisson to Chief of Naval Operations, memorandum, “Narrative Report of Action for the Period 1 December 1950 through 26 December 1950,” January 8, 1951, 11, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC.

Navy, Army, and Department of Defense officials predicted “a large scale retreat” of American troops “as Chinese Communists were swarming . . . in large numbers.” As a result, CVG-3 pilots flew “in close support of ground troops in the Choshin [sic] Reservoir Area” in early December.30 Lieutenant (junior grade) Thomas J. Hudner, Jr. served as Ensign Brown’s wingman at the time. In an oral history conducted by Naval History and Heritage Command staff in October 1996, Hudner identified bombing missions, armed reconnaissance, close air support, and air control as the typical missions he and his squadron engaged in. “One thing about Korea,” he told oral historians, “at the time we were there, is the days were relatively short. We were there right in the middle of winter. . . Because we had very few night-qualified aviators, our window for flying daylight hours were considerably cut shorter than what they did during the summer.” Hudner admitted that “very few of us were” night qualified. Despite their fighter squadron designation, VF-32 did not encounter enemy fighters because all of their sorties, “without exception” he said, were “a ground type of operation.” There was little concern among the pilots about air opposition. “The only surface-to-air defenses that we ran into was either twenty [or] forty millimeter type of fire from the ground.” An unidentified pilot had confirmed to Hudner that he had seen Chinese troops camouflaged in white against the snow, lying on their backs shooting small arms toward the sky. Hudner said that he had seen aircraft return to Leyte with the undersides of their wings and fuselage dotted with bullet holes. He suspected this was how the Corsair piloted by Ensign Jesse Brown met its fate on mountainous terrain in North Korea.31 Hudner admitted in his interview,

We have no idea how he was actually hit or even if he was actually hit. We think that one of those airplanes, one of those, uh, small arms—a small caliber rifle, something like that—hit the plane underneath and just happened to hit an oil line caused him to lose oil, which caused him to lose oil pressure and his engine froze up. Crashed.32

On 4 December 1950, Brown piloted one of four Corsairs on an armed reconnaissance mission of the Koto-Ri area surrounding the Chosin Reservoir.33 Hudner described such missions as flights “over a particular area looking for targets of opportunity” where “anything”—military targets, he qualified later—“was fair game.” The Corsairs he and Brown piloted “rarely” carried bombs on those missions. They “did have rockets and a lot of [the] time, napalm.” They, too, were armed with .50 caliber machine guns.34 Just after midday, Brown’s section took off from Leyte in the Sea of Japan. Hudner remembered the circumstances:

It was around one o’clock in the afternoon that our flight was scheduled to take off. It was going to be an armed reconnaissance mission. And it was probably about ten or fifteen minutes by the time our aircraft took off. I can remember my takeoff was not at all good. [stumbles] I was just incidental. We joined up—as I remember—a flight of eight aircraft, and we had two sections of four aircraft. Jesse and I were in the section that was headed by the squadron’s executive officer, a fella named [LCDR] [Richard] Dick Cevoli. There was Dick Cevoli and flying on his wing would normally have been a fella named [LTJG] Bill Koenig, but for some reason he didn’t fly that day, so flying in his position was a fella named [LT] George Hudson, who was our landing signal officer. . . George was flying in the number two position. [Ensign] Jesse Brown was what they call a section leader. He was junior to me, and normally the section leader would be the second most senior person in a flight of four aircraft like that. . . [coughs] but he had at least one year’s more experience than I did, and in that squadron we respected experience before rank. So I was what they call Tail End Charlie.35


Photo #: USN 1146845 Ensign Jesse L. Brown, USN

Ensign Jesse L. Brown in the cockpit of his 4FU-4 Corsair fighter, ca. 1950. (USN 1146845)


Flying in the section leader position in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir, Brown’s Corsair took small arms damage to the oil system—Hudner suspected—from unseen ground troops. With no other options, Brown elected to crash his mortally damaged aircraft behind Chinese lines.36 Hudner recalled the incident in exhilarating detail:

We were up flying along the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir where there were Marine troops and Chinese just all over the place. We were not a close air support mission at that time. We were some distance away probably looking for enemy troops and to attack them with [stumbles] whatever munitions was most appropriate for the way that they were assembled, for their numbers, and where they were and everything. I think we’d been out there for about half an hour when Jesse called on the radio. He said, ‘I think I’ve been hit. I’m losing power and I’m gonna have to go in.’ Well, right away I said, ‘Okay Jesse. I’ll walk you through your check off list.’ Rather than his trying to concentrate when his mind may have been frozen, I told him such things as lock your harness and open your canopy. I forget what else the check off list consists of, but I wanted to make sure that his shoulder harness was locked so when he hit, he wouldn’t bash his face in the gun sight. I didn’t take much time to look around for a clear spot because the area we were flying over was mostly wooded. It had a lot of scrabble [scrub] pine—it had it all over the place. [mumbles] It was not just hilly, it was mountainous territory we were flying over. But he saw a spot which was close enough for him to hit for and he wasn’t able to fly directly into the wind. He didn’t have the luxury for that. But there was a spot, it was probably about a quarter of a mile in diameter. It was a circle, it was just an opening of about a quarter of a mile, almost on the side of this mountain—an up grade of about twenty degrees. So he landed going up this mountain. He said nothing at all during this whole time. . . . I don’t remember his saying anything. Well his airplane hit with such force that the canopy buckled about thirty-five degrees at the cockpit on the starboard side. I know his canopy was open because that’s one of the things I told him. I said, ‘Open and lock your canopy.’37

When questioned if Brown exhibited alarm over the radio during his descent, Hudner admitted that he could not remember.

The picture I always portrayed of him [was] being a very cool, calm person, and I think he was. I don’t think he was the panicking type. But we never saw him in a situation where he had reason that he would have panicked or to be very stoic. When he was hit, or he lost power there was no panic in his voice whatsoever—saying 'My god! My god! What am I gonna do? Help Me!'—nothing like that. For the most part, not much coming from his cockpit. He was just, probably concentrating every bit of his thoughts and energies on landing in a reasonably safe place, as safely as he possibly could in very extreme circumstances.38

Upon impact, the Corsair’s engine separated from the fuselage and smoke drifted up from the disabled plane. The remaining seven aircraft circled around Brown’s crash site. Hudner confirmed that Brown had managed to pull back the canopy and wave at his comrade aviators, but he did not make any attempt to remove himself from the cockpit. Over the same radio frequency, Hudner recalled, aviators questioned why Brown neither responded to radio calls nor exited his aircraft. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Cevoli called for rescue support. Hudner admitted, “I felt that I was indestructible. I could with that type of airplane [Corsair] with a great big engine and nose up there acting as a big plow for me, I thought it was worth, you know, landing on there, it was gonna save Jesse’s life.”39 Hudner made an additional pass over Brown’s downed plane when he made the decision to crash his own:

After I made my decision, I dropped—I don’t think I had ordnance, I mean, I don’t think I had napalm. I don’t remember napalm at all. I may have had it and used it before, but I did not have napalm on board at the time I went in. But I did have rockets, and I just fired the rockets into the mountain, and shot all my ammunition to get the airplane as light as I could. . . I hit the ground. It was the hardest [landing], ‘cuz the ground was rock hard anyhow because of the temperature. I wasn’t ready for it to be that hard. . . . I think it broke my windscreen, or it cracked, and of course that glass was very brittle because the temperatures were so low. . . . I’m guessing it was around zero [degrees] [Fahrenheit].40

Hudner force-landed his Corsair within one hundred yards of his wingman. Adrenaline and “excitement” numbed his senses to the point that he was not “really aware of the cold.”41 Wading through snow, Hudner plowed toward Brown’s Corsair. “He was just sitting there,” Hudner said,

and he recognized me when I came over. I don’t really remember very much of what he said, but there was no panic, no excitement in his voice. It was just, ‘We gotta do something to get outta here.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry Jesse.’ He’d taken his helmet off and he’d taken his gloves off. . . He’d dropped his gloves during this time. If you drop anything in a Corsair, there was no way of getting it because it goes down under the seat and down into the fuselage. . . his fingers were just frozen solid. I tried to pull the gloves out, but I couldn’t so I wrapped his scarf around his hands.42

When the fuselage of Brown’s Corsair buckled, his knees likely made contact with the instrument panel, feasibly breaking or, at the very least, fracturing both of his patellas.43 “The reason he was caught in there,” Hudner assessed forty-six years later, “was that as the fuselage broke, it bent, and then the fuselage pinned his knee against the rudder pedals.”44 Straddling the cockpit, Hudner attempted to pull Brown out of the disabled aircraft, but could not. Racing back to his radio, Hudner confirmed Brown was alive and requested that the rescue helicopter Cevoli called for only minutes before bring an axe and a fire extinguisher.

The weather into which Ensign Brown and his section flew that day in early December 1950 was dreadful. Snow danced above frozen terrain and blanketed the adjacent Kangnam Mountains. Overnight temperatures regularly dipped well below zero degrees Fahrenheit as icy winds howled out of Manchuria. “The bitterly cold, short days and lack of repair facilities” in Korea hampered routine helicopter maintenance and repair. It was under these trying conditions, says retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Ronald J. Brown, “that the mettle of VMO-6’s helicopter section was truly tested.” All available aircraft of the Marine observation squadron flew from sunup to sundown, logging almost seventy-four flight hours on one day alone.45 First Lieutenant Charles Ward of Marine Observation Squadron Six (VMO-6) responded to Cevoli’s call for a rescue helicopter. Ward circled around the crash site and, to Hudner, he

looked as though he didn’t know where to land. . . . I found out later he was very concerned about where he was going to land because the brakes didn’t work on that helicopter. He was deathly afraid of the possibility that while we were over helping Jesse that airplane may have start rolling someplace. He’d have trouble starting every once and a while, so he left the rotors engaged so that there would be no possibility at all in that cold weather that he couldn’t get the thing started. At any rate, after he got there, we both went back to the airplane and the two of us worked for the better part of half an hour in different ways. Although another part of our survival gear was a hunting knife—we very very briefly talked about the way to get him out was to cut his leg off and neither one of us was about to do that. . . [Brown] was in so state of shock and—with all the control I had over my airplane, my back hurt—God knows how many vertebrae he may have crushed when he landed that way. I don’t know. We weren’t about to actually kill him by tryin’ to save him.46

As Hudner and Ward worked feverishly to free Ensign Brown from the destroyed Corsair, employing the axe in an attempt to cut him out of the fuselage, Brown lapsed into unconsciousness and likely died. With Brown still trapped in the cockpit, unresponsive, and with daylight fading, Hudner and Ward agreed, reluctantly, to leave.

Whether Jesse was still living at the time that we left him, I don’t know. But I guess any answer I can give to the fact that he might have been living, I think, was the moment I told him goodbye. We would be right back as soon as we could get something—‘cuz I didn’t want to say just plain goodbye—I said, ‘Jesse, we’ve got to get some more equipment.’ I said, ‘We’ll be back.’ And he did say, ‘Don’t leave me.’ I said, ‘Jesse, don’t you worry. We will be back.’ [Hudner pauses, sighs] He just didn’t respond in any way, and he was either unconscious or so tired, he couldn’t talk the whole time, up to that time. So there’s very little question in my mind that he expired within moments of the time we last saw him.47

It is unclear from Brown’s military personnel file when exactly he died. Official BUPERS and NAVMED records list Ensign Brown’s death as a result of “multiple,” “extreme” “injuries” to his right and left patella.48 A summary in his medical history simply reads, “Ensign BROWN died before he could be removed from the cockpit.” He was twenty-four years old. To exacerbate an already sorrowful incident, Brown’s remains could not be extracted “because the crash occurred deep within enemy held territory.”49 Joint U.S.-North Korean searches for human remains began in 1996, but the start of a nuclear standoff in 2005 between the two countries suspended the searches. At the age of 88, Hudner returned to North Korea with former U.S. Marine Dick Bonelli in 2013 to try to locate the remains of Ensign Brown. They were, unfortunately, unsuccessful in their search.50 Numerous secondary sources claim aviators attached to USS Leyte returned to the site of the crash and napalmed the area, but that action has not been confirmed by official sources.51 The remains of Ensign Brown and his Corsair have not been recovered.

Brown’s commanding officer, D. T. Neill, recommended him for posthumous receipt of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and Purple Heart Award “for wounds resulting in death received as a pilot attached to Fighter Squadron THIRTY TWO on 4 December 1950, during action against hostile North Korean Forces, north of the CHOSHIN RESERVOIR, while upholding United Nations Security Council policies.”52 In April 1971, laborers at Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, Louisiana, laid the keel for the Knox-class destroyer escort USS Jesse L. Brown (DE-1089). The ship launched in his honor on 18 March 1972, with Daisy Pearl Brown Thorne, Ensign Brown’s widow, as the ship’s sponsor.


Photo #: USN 1151107 USS Jesse L. Brown (DE-1089)

RADM John W. Dolan, Jr., Mrs. Daisy Brown Thorne, Mr. Henry Z. Carter, CAPT Thomas J. Hudner, Jr. attend the christening and launch of USS Jesse L. Brown (DE-1089) on 18 MAR 1972. (USN 1151107)


Heather M. Haley, PhD, NHHC Histories and Archives Division, October 2023

-----------------------------------------

[1]  Exec. Order No. 9981, 13 Fed. Reg. 4313 (July 28, 1948); Eben A. Ayers, “Press Release,” September 18, 1948, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/press-release-4; Heather M. Haley, “Truman’s Executive Order 9981: Advancing Military Policy Ahead of American Attitudes,” entry posted July 19, 2023, https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/Recent/Article-View/Article/3463591/trumans-executive-order-9981-advancing-military-policy-ahead-of-american-attitu/. 

[2]  Fred R. Stickney, January 13, 1949, 73, 76, Transcripts of the Meetings of the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, Document Files, Record Group 220, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Independence, MO [hereafter RG 220, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library].

[3]  Dennis D. Nelson, January 13, 1949, 92, Transcripts of the Meetings of the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, RG 220, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.

[4]  Theodore Taylor, The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown (New York: Avon Books, 1998), 24, 23, 13.

[5]  Ibid., 16; Jesse Leroy Brown, “Officer Qualifications Questionnaire (NAVPERS-309),” undated, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, Official Military Personnel Files, Record Group 24, National Archives at St. Louis, MO [hereafter Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA].

[6]  “Press Release from the Ninth Naval District,” undated, Navy Files, RG 220, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.

[7]  Jesse Leroy Brown, “Officer Qualifications Questionnaire (NAVPERS-309),” undated, Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; J. L. Brown, “Officer Biography Sheet (NAVPERS-979),” October 28, 1949; Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[8]  Jesse Leroy Brown, “Application for Enlistment into the Naval Service,” July 8, 1946, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; G. E. Baxter, “NAV. PERS. Form 601,” July 8, 1946, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; “Oath of Allegiance,” July 8, 1946; Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[9]  C. E. Clark, “NAV. PERS. Form 601,”April 14, 1947, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; James Forrestal, “NAVPERS-921,” April 15, 1947, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[10]  “Press Release from the Ninth Naval District,” undated, Navy Files, RG 220, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.

[11]  A. I. Malstrom to Jesse L. Brown, “Designation as Naval Aviator (HTA),” October 21, 1948, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[12]  J. E. Vose, Jr., “Officer’s Fitness Report (NAVPERS-310A),” October 23, 1948, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[13]  G. F. Bogan to Jesse L. Brown, et. al., “Temporary Additional Duty,” November 15, 1948, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[14]  J. R. Van Evera to Jesse L. Brown, “Course of Instruction in Anti-Submarine Warfare, Completion of,” December 14, 1948, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; J. R. VanEvera to Jesse L. Brown, “Course of Instruction in Operation of Airborne electronics Equipment-Completion of,” December 14, 1948, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[15]  K. M. Krieger, “Officer’s Fitness Report (NAVPERS-310A),” January 4, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[16]  F. B. Stump to Jesse L. Brown, “Change of Duty,” January 3, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[17]  John L. Sullivan to Jesse L. Brown, “Appointment in the U.S. Navy,” March 17, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[18]  Francis P. Matthews, Ensign Appointment, June 1, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; Jesse Leroy Brown to Secretary of the Navy, “Acceptance and Oath of Office (NAVPERS-339),” April 15, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[19]  E. D. Willems, “Officer’s Fitness Report (NAVPERS-310A),” June 30, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[20]  E. D. Willems, “Officer’s Fitness Report (NAVPERS-310A),” November 29, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[21]  W. B. Case to Jesse L. Brown, “Correspondence Course in Elementary Nuclear Physics, NavPers 10775; Completion of,” December 6, 1949, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; W. B. Case to Jesse L. Brown, “Correspondence Course in International Law NavPers 10717; Completion of,” December 19, 1950, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[22]  VF-32, Enclosure (A) “Chronology,” January 23, 1950, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC [hereafter Archives Branch, NHHC].

[23]  “Memorial” in Korean Cruise: U.S.S. Leyte, September 1950-February 1951 (New York: Yearbooks Publishing Co., 1951), Navy Department Library, Washington, DC.

[24]  D. T. Neill to Chief of Naval Operations, Enclosure (A) “Narrative,” January 31, 1951, 4, Folder 7, Box 80, Aviation Commands 1941-1952, VF 27-33, Archives Branch, NHHC; Walter V. Combs, Navy Interdiction: Korea (Washington, DC: GPO, 1952), II: i.

[25]  “The History of Fighter Squadron Thirty Two,” January 1968, Folder 4, Fleet Aviation Commands—Active, VFA-32, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[26]  D. T. Neill to Secretary of the Navy, “Air Medal, First Award; Recommendation for,” December 10, 1950, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[27]  The commanding officer aboard USS Leyte found it pertinent to note in his written endorsement of Brown’s posthumous receipt of the Distinguished Flying Cross that “Ensign Brown was the only negro aviator aboard. He was an outstanding officer and pilot. He definitely deserves the Distinguished Flying Cross.” T. U. Sisson to Secretary of the Navy, “Second Endorsement on VF-32 ltr ser 474 of 10 December 1950,” December 15, 1950, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[28]  T. U. Sisson to Chief of Naval Operations, memorandum, “Narrative Report of Action for the Period 1 December 1950 through 26 December 1950,” January 8, 1951, 10-11, 8, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[29]  “History of USS Leyte” in Korean Cruise: U.S.S. Leyte, September 1950-February 1951, Navy Department Library, Washington, DC.

[30]  D. T. Neill to Chief of Naval Operations, Enclosure (A) “Narrative,” January 31, 1951, 7, Folder 7, Box 80, Aviation Commands 1941-1952, VF 27-33, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[31]  Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., interviewed by Robert J. Schneller, Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, October 1, 1996, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[32]  Emphasis in original. Ibid.

[33]  T. U. Sisson to Chief of Naval Operations, memorandum, “Narrative Report of Action for the Period 1 December 1950 through 26 December 1950,” January 8, 1951, 2, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[34]  Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., interviewed by Robert J. Schneller, Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, October 1, 1996, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[35]  Ibid.

[36]  Richard P. Hallion, The Naval Air War in Korea (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2011), 85.

[37]  Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., interviewed by Robert J. Schneller, Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, October 1, 1996, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[38]  Ibid.

[39]  Ibid.

[40]  Ibid.

[41]  Ibid.

[42]  Ibid.

[43]  “Certificate of Death,” December 9, 1950; “Data on Remains Not Yet Recovered or Identified,” undated, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[44]  Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., interviewed by Robert J. Schneller, Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, October 1, 1996, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[45]  Ronald J. Brown, Whirlybirds: U.S. Marine Helicopters in Korea (Washington Navy Yard: US Marine Corps Historical Center, 2003), 32.

[46]  Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., interviewed by Robert J. Schneller, Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, October 1, 1996, Archives Branch, NHHC.

[47]  Ibid.

[48]  “Certificate of Death,” December 9, 1950; “Data on Remains Not Yet Recovered or Identified,” undated, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[49]  “Data on Remains Not Yet Recovered (OQMG FORM 371),” undated, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA; C. L. Rickerd, “Certificate of Death (NAVMED-N),” December 9, 1950, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

[50]  Jean H. Lee, “U.S. Veteran Returns to Keep Promise to Fallen Comrade,” Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), July 20, 2013, B7; “Coming Back for a Wingman,” Bristol Herald Courier (Bristol, TN), July 31, 2023, A3.

[51]  John E. Weems, “Black Wings of Gold,” USNI Proceedings, July 1983, 39, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC; Timothy J. Christmann, “Ensign Jesse L. Brown: From Dream to Reality,” Naval Aviation News, March-April 1984, 27, Folder 1, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC; “Brown Led the Way for Black Navy Pilots” Jet Observer, February 6, 1992, 19, Folder 2, Biographical Collection: Jesse L. Brown, Archives Branch, NHHC; Taylor, The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown, 1998), 285; Hallion, The Naval Air War in Korea, 85; Adam Makos, Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice (New York: Ballantine Books, 2015), 361; Clark Hicks, “Jesse Brown’s Legacy Continues,” Hattiesburg American (Hattiesburg, MS), June 12, 2016, 1B.

[52]  “Proposed Citation in the case of ENSIGN Jesse Leroy BROWN, U.S. Naval Reserve, 504477/1315,” December 10, 1950, Official Military Personnel File for Jesse L. Brown, RG 24, NARA.

Published: Wed Oct 18 17:29:58 EDT 2023