THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 25, 1994 TAG: 9407250186
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PENSACOLA, FLA. LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Pride will be tinged with disappointment at a ceremony for the USS Jesse L. Brown. The warship named for the Navy's first black aviator, the first ship the Navy named for a black officer, is being decommissioned.
The disappointment is shared by the family of Ensign Jesse L. Brown, killed in action during the Korean War, and his former wingman, Thomas Hudner.
Hudner, a retired Navy captain, won the Medal of Honor for a heroic but futile attempt to rescue Brown from the wreckage of his downed plane in enemy territory.
The ship is to be decommissioned Wednesday at Pensacola Naval Air Station, where Brown received flight training. It's one of two frigates going to the Egyptian navy.
The Navy is considering naming another vessel for Brown, said Lt. j.g John Rec, the ship's spokesman.
Hudner, who will miss the decommissioning, was Brown's wingman in a flight of four F4U-4 Corsairs from the aircraft carrier Leyte on Dec. 4, 1950. They were providing air cover for U.S. troops near the Chosin Reservoir.
Brown's fighter was hit by ground fire and he crash-landed. When it became clear he was alive but unable to get out of the smoldering wreckage, Hudner made a wheels-up landing nearby.
Hudner tried to pull Brown free, but the wounded man was pinned in the wreckage. A Marine helicopter pilot landed and joined the effort. Brown slipped in and out of consciousness.
Ward and the Marine had to leave or they would have risked capture or death in the overnight sub-zero cold. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ensign Jesse Brown was flying support for ground troops in Chosin
Reservoir in the Korean War when his plane went down.
by CNB