475th's Aces
Captain Harry W. Brown
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| Born on 19 May 1921 in Amarillo, Texas, Harry Winston Brown
entered the Army Air Corps in September 1940. He was commissioned at Kelly Field,
Texas on 15 August 1941 and was immediately assigned to the 47th Pursuit Group at
Wheeler Field, Hawaii. Brown was one of five pilots to score victories during the attack on Pearl Harbor, shooting down one Val and damaging another while flying a P-36. In August 1942 he was assigned to the 9th Squadron, 49th Fighter Group based in Australia flying P-40s. Brown scored his second victory, an Oscar, over Lae-Finschaven, New Guinea during the Bismarck Sea battle on 4 March 1943. When the 475th Fighter Group "Satan's Angels" was formed, Captain Brown was assigned to the 431st Fighter Squadron as a flight leader. Flying the P-38, Brown scored the Group's first three victories, downing three Zekes over the Watut Balley on 16 August 1943 and later achieved his sixth victory shooting down a Zeke over Rabaul on 24 October. Following World War II, Brown served as base commander of McGuire AFB, New Jersey prior to leaving the service in August 1948. Remaining in the Air Force Reserve, he earned undergraduate and masters degrees at the University of Denver and was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He served as personnel manager for the Bechtel Company in San Francisco for 10 years and commanded a Reserve air-sea rescue squadron at Lowry AFB, Colorado. He died on 7 October 1991 in Walnut Creek, California. |
