Vet returns to NKorea for 1st black Navy aviator
Source: AP-Excite
By JEAN H. LEE
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Two years after he made history by becoming the Navy's first black pilot, Ensign Jesse Brown lay trapped in his downed fighter plane in subfreezing North Korea, his leg broken and bleeding. His wingman crash-landed to try to save him, and even burned his hands trying to put out the flames.
A chopper hovered nearby. Lt. j.g. Thomas Hudner could save himself, but not his friend. With the light fading, the threat of enemy fire all around him and Brown losing consciousness, the white son of a New England grocery-store magnate made a promise to the black son of a sharecropper.
"We'll come back for you."
More than 60 years have passed. Hudner is now 88. But he did not forget. He is coming back.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130719/DA7KGIGG0.html
In this undated file photo from around 1950 provided by the U.S. Navy, Ensign Jesse Brown, who died in December 1950 after his plane crashed in North Korea, sits in a cockpit of his plane. Two years after he made history by becoming the Navy's first black pilot Brown lay trapped in his downed fighter plane in subfreezing North Korea, his leg broken and bleeding. His wingman crash-landed to try to save him, and even burned his hands trying to put out the flames. A chopper hovered nearby. Lt. j.g. Thomas Hudner could save himself, but not his friend. Hudner heads to Pyongyang on Saturday, July 20, 2013 with hopes of traveling in the coming week to the region known in North Korea as the Jangjin Reservoir, accompanied by soldiers from the Korean People's Army, to the spot where Brown died in December 1950. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, File)
Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I hope they are able to locate Brown's remains.
ewagner
(18,964 posts)the old 1950s movie "The Bridges at Toka Ri"....only there wasn't any mention that the downed pilot was black....
I was a Navy Brat and loved the movie because of the (relatively) accurate pictures of the aircraft and aircraft carriers so I remember the movie quite well.
I think William Holden was the star...
I had no idea the story was real.
Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)Check it out when yo get a chance.
On Edit: Had to add this one.....
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)often make.
From a series of interviews that I read and a book that I read researchers found that bonds made between Soldiers in wartime often are stronger than the bonds those same people feel between themselves and their spouses.
This obviously was this guy's mission in life for quite some time. I hope he is able to get some sense of closure.
I'm not trying to shift the focus of this thread to me, but I lost 5 Soldiers from my platoon in Iraq in January 2005 - just about 3 weeks before we left the country and ended our deployment and I have been planning for quite some time to return to the spot at some point in the future. I get what this guy has been feeling.
Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)ewagner
(18,964 posts)I was military but never saw combat...my colleagues who did demonstrated those bonds and I, at least from a observation, understood them.
Thanks for your service.
bluedeathray
(511 posts)JohninPA
(54 posts)I am very proud to have served on a ship named in his honor: USS Jesse L. Brown FF1089. Each time we went into action we blasted the song "Bad Leroy Brown". His story was an example to all of us serving aboard of honor and commitment.
I am sorry to say that the ship was decommissioned and sold to the Egyptian navy where it remains in service.