Donald Hubert Brown, Jr
Lieutenant (junior grade)
VA-23, CVW-2, USS MIDWAY, TF 77, 7TH FLEET
United States Navy
Berkeley, California
August 22, 1938 to August 12, 1965
DONALD H BROWN Jr is on the Wall at Panel 2E, Line 51

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Donald H Brown
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19 Jan 2002

You Are Not Forgotten

From one who served in the same squadron,
John Mudgett, ADCS(AW), USN (Ret)
1665 Cassell St. Virginia Beach, Va 23454-5651
jrmudgett@cox.net

 
7 Aug 2004

Mr. Brown, you were not with VA-23 for very long but you will always be remembered as long as a VA-23 sailor is alive. I salute you for giving the maximum thing you could give for my freedom.

John Champlin (Champ) AZ2
jpchamplin@cox.net


 

Notes from The Virtual Wall

The first SA-2 GUIDELINE surface-to-air missile site in North Vietnam was discovered in April 1965, yet U.S. pilots were forbidden to take immediate defensive action. A second SAM site was spotted about a month later, and by mid-July several more sites were photographed in the area of Hanoi and Haiphong. Defensive strikes were not approved for any of the sites, primarily because Washington leadership feared killing Soviet personnel involved in training the North Vietnamese crews.

On the night of August 11-12, the first Navy aircraft fell victim to SAMs. LCDR Francis D. Roberge and LTJG Donald H. Brown of Attack Squadron Twenty Three, flying A-4Es from the deck of the carrier USS MIDWAY, were struck by SAMS while on a road reconnaissance some sixty miles south of Hanoi. The pilots saw what they believed were two flares glowing beneath the clouds and coming closer. Too late, they realized that glowing missile propellant was the source of the light. Brown's aircraft exploded and crashed, while Roberge's aircraft, although heavily damaged, made it back to the ship.

From the
POW Network

On 14 August 1985, the Vietnamese government turned over 24 sets of human remains to the United States. On 24 October 1985, it was announced that Donald Brown's remains had been positively identified.


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