 He
trained at the Tuskegee Army Air base in Alabama, Selfridge
Field in Michigan and Walterboro Air Base in South Carolina
in 1943 and 1944. Brown flew his first combat mission,
escorting B-24 bombers over the Ploesti oil fields in Romania
in August 1944. In all, Brown completed 68 combat missions
in the P-51 Mustang, escorting bombers over Germany, Austria
and the Balkan islands and conducting low altitude strafing
missions over enemy airfields and rail yards.
The highlight of his combat career came when he was
the first 15th Air Force fighter pilot to shoot down
a German Me-262 jet fighter. During that same mission,
the 332nd Fighter Group was selected to receive the highest
honor given to a combat unit, the Presidential Unit Citation.
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For his achievements in combat, Brown was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with eight
Oak Leaf Clusters.
